An Investigation into the Wear Behavior of Martensitically Transformed Nitrided Layers

To improve the service behavior of gears, surface heat treatments such as nitriding or induction hardening can be performed. Since these processes are limited in their achievable maximum hardness or depth of hardness, a combination treatment could allow benefits from the advantages of both processes. The aim of this work was to show the correlation between the microstructure resulting from combination treatment and the performance of the surface layer using the example of wear behavior. The investigations focused on the impact of different nitrided states, in the combination treatment of the material EN31CrMoV9, on wear resistance. The wear was evaluated after running the two-disc test gravimetrically and optically. Nitrided-only specimens showed better wear resistance compared to those subjected to induction hardening after nitriding. Substantial differences in weight loss indicate that induction hardening worsens the wear behavior. The variants with the compound layer removed in the nitride-only state as well as in the induction hardened state showed a better wear behavior compared to the respective conditions with a compound layer. This was attributed to the lower surface roughness and the higher hardness due to less retained austenite after combination treatment.