Tool steel, as a special type of steel used to manufacture various tools, has high hardness, high strength, good wear resistance and corrosion resistance. In order to manufacture cutting tools, stamping dies, etc. with higher quality and performance, tool steel often needs to be nitrided. Today’s article will provide an in-depth analysis of the nitriding treatment process of tool steel.
Analysis of Nitriding Treatment Process of Tool Steel：
The principle of nitriding treatment is to place the steel in a nitrogen-containing medium so that nitrogen atoms penetrate into the surface layer of the steel to form nitrides. Nitriding tool steel can not only significantly improve the surface hardness, wear resistance and fatigue strength of the steel, but also extend its service life. This also makes the nitriding process widely used.
Although nitriding can significantly improve the performance of tool steel, it has extremely high requirements on the process parameters of nitriding treatment during the nitriding process. First of all, in terms of nitriding temperature, the nitriding treatment needs to accurately control the temperature between 500 and 580°C. Too high or too low temperature will affect the nitriding effect.
Secondly, in terms of nitriding time, in addition to temperature control, nitriding treatment also has strict requirements on time control. Although the length of nitriding time is affected by many factors such as the nitriding temperature, the chemical composition of the steel and the nitriding layer, the usual nitriding time is generally between 10 and 100 hours.
In addition, in terms of nitrogen potential treatment, the nitrogen activity in the nitriding atmosphere directly affects the nitriding speed and the quality of the nitriding layer. This requires precise control of the amount of nitrogen introduced to adjust the nitrogen potential. Therefore, after placing the steel to be treated in the nitriding furnace, the air in the furnace must be removed first to prevent oxidation reactions on the surface of the steel.
In the nitriding process, there are three main common treatment processes. The first is gas nitriding, which involves placing tool steel in an ammonia atmosphere for nitriding. Active nitrogen atoms are decomposed at a certain temperature and penetrate into the surface of the steel. The second type is ion nitriding, which uses the principle of glow discharge to accelerate nitrogen ions to hit the surface of tool steel under the action of an electric field to achieve nitriding. The third type is liquid nitriding, which involves immersing tool steel in a salt bath containing nitride for nitriding. In practical applications, we can choose the corresponding nitriding process according to specific needs.
It is worth mentioning that compared with the carburizing process, the nitriding process does not require heat treatment after nitriding, and the process is simple. Therefore, the nitriding process is widely used in the fields of molds, cutting tools, mechanical parts, etc. In mold manufacturing, after nitriding treatment, the service life and working efficiency of tool steel are significantly improved.
Conclusion
In conclusion, nitriding treatment is an effective surface-strengthening process for tool steel, which can not only significantly improve the surface properties of tool steel, but also extend its service life. In practical applications, the nitriding process parameters and methods should be reasonably selected according to the specific requirements and use conditions of the tool steel to obtain the ideal nitriding effect.
Why Choose Sino Special Metal?
Thank you for reading our article and we hope it can help you to have a better understanding of the nitriding treatment process of tool steel. If you are looking for tool steel suppliers and manufacturers online now, we would advise you to visit Sino Special Metal.
As a leading supplier of tool steel from Shanghai China, Sino Special Metal offers customers high-quality tool steel products such as D2 Tool Steel(UNS T30402), A2 Tool Steel(UNS T30102), and M2 Tool Steel(UNS T11302).
