IMPROVEMENT IN WEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF STEEL TOOLS BY METAL-ION IMPLANTATION

The annual economic loss induced by wear damage of steel tools is estimated to be DM 34 billion. Ion implantation is known to be a promising method for improving the wear behaviour of metal surfaces. The effect of nitrogen implantation into steel has been investigated by a number of workers and good results have been obtained for several types of steel, especially for steel with high chromium content. However, few investigations of the effect of metal ion implantation into steel have been made. We have investigated the effect of metal ion implantation into high speed steel dies, using high current metal ion beams from a repetitively pulsed vacuum arc ion source. The testing method was, the upsetting, which is comparable to actual forming processes and simulates the wear strain of the tools used in the metal forming industry. Here we describe the metal ion implantation facility and the wear testing apparatus and procedure, and discuss the results we have obtained.