Effects of Thermal Erosion and Wear Resistance on AISI H13 Tool Steel by Various Surface Treatments

In this study AISI H13 steel was treated with oxynitriding, CrN coating, and CrN coated with oxynitriding to investigate the molten loss for melting A380 aluminum alloy and wear resistance. The experimental results indicate that the minimum melting loss appeared in duplex surface treatments of CrN coated with oxynitriding after a 3 h erosive test. Weight loss was only 0.8%; however the untreated specimen was 3.2%. In addition, all specimens following the different surface treatments, showed a higher wear resistance after the wear test. The untreated specimen showed obvious traces of plough cracks. Conversely, other surface treated specimens experienced very shallow wear. This result shows that the wear resistance of AISI H13 can be effectively improved by performing various surface treatments. The lowest coefficient of friction also appeared in the duplex surface treatment of CrN coated with oxynitriding. The average value of frictional coefficient was 0.28. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2011360]