Corrosion Resistance of Kolsterised Austenitic 304 Stainless Steel

Austenitic stainless suffers from low wear resistance in applications where rubbing against other surfaces is encountered. This drawback can be overcome by surface treatment such as coating by hard materials. Other treatments such as carburization at relatively low temperature become applicable recently to improve hardness and wear resistance. Carburization heat treatment would only be justified if the corrosion resistance is unaffected. In this work samples of 304 stainless steels treated by colossal supersaturation case carburizing (known as Kolsterising) carried out by Bodycote Company was examined for pitting corrosion resistance at room temperature and at 50 degrees C. Comparison with results obtained for untreated samples in similar testing conditions show that there is no deterioration in the pitting resistance due to the Kolsterising heat treatment. X ray diffraction patterns obtained for Kolsterising sample showed that peaks correspond to the austenite phase has shifted to lower 2 theta values compared with those of the untreated sample. The shift is an indication for expansion of austenite unit cells caused by saturation with diffusing carbon atoms. The XRD of Kolsterising samples also revealed additional peaks appeared in the patterns due to formation of carbides in the kolsterised layer. Examination of these additional peaks showed that these peaks are attributed to a type of carbide known as Hagg carbide Fe2C5. The absence of carbides that contain chromium means that no Cr depletion occurred in the layer and the corrosion properties are maintained. Surface hardness measurements showed large increase after Kolsterising heat treatment.