Effect of Shot Peening and Nitriding on Toughness and Abrasive Wear Resistance of Powder Metallurgic Steels Highly Alloyed with Vanadium

Bohler K390 steel is used for cold work tools, with 9% of V, made by using powder metallurgy. In this work, it has been studied the effect of shot peening and nitriding surface treatments on wear resistance and impact toughness of this type of steel. For this purpose, previous changes in several thermal processing factors related to quenching and tempering were carried out. The results allow for an increase in the hardness, impact toughness, and abrasive wear resistance of these steels. An austenitizing treatment at 1100 degrees C with air cooling and 3 tempering processes at 550 degrees C is suggested. These conditions foster a lower weight percentage of retained austenite, up to 3%, a higher carbide percentage, up to 15-16% in weight, and a greater impact toughness with no notch, of above 40 J/cm2. If this treatment is combined with further ion nitriding, the maximum level of abrasive wear resistance is reached. The only carbide type present in the microstructure is the MC type. Most of the V, Cr, and Mo contents are present in said carbides. The Co and the W tend to remain in solid solution in the matrix constituent. Both the shot peening treatment as well as ion nitriding offer a considerable increase in hardness, with values of up to 1500-1600 HV. Nevertheless, it has been confirmed that shot peening does not offer any abrasive wear resistance improvement. Such resistance may only be considerably improved by the application of an ionic nitriding treatment. The thickness of the nitrided layer fluctuates between 150 and 175 mu m. The carbides are affected by nitriding, reaching levels that are higher than the atomic 10%, at an intermediate depth of the nitrided layer. These values are higher in the matrix constituent, as they are even higher than the atomic 20% in N.