Effect of Plasma Nitriding Treatment on Surface Integrity of Stainless Cutlery Steel

—Study on Improvement of Cutting Performance of Cutlery—

Abstract

Plasma nitriding treatment is very effective for the hardening of precision metal parts. Especially, high density plasma nitriding can efficiently generate a high density ion with installed hollow cathode, which decreases the damage of the workpiece. As a result, the parts can be cleaned, etched, heated, and nitrided effectively. In this study, an improvement of surface integrity of stainless steel SUS440C is experimentally investigated by nitriding. The experimental analysis made it clear that the surface hardness of workpiece increased due to the generation of nitrided layer even under the low temperature condition like 513K. The nitrided layer was hardened with an increase of process temperature and process time, until a maximum surface hardness of 1700HV.