CORROSION RESISTANCE AND TRIBOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF PLASMA NITRIDED AND TENIFERED 42CrMo4 STEEL

Plasma nitriding is a great thermochemical treatment, widely used in many technical applications as a final operation to improve the mechanical, tribological and corrosion properties of steel. This article deals with wear and corrosion resistance comparison of plasma nitrided and tenifered 42CrMo4 steel, which is widely used in manufacturing of breech mechanism in the armament production. The prepared steel samples were plasma nitrided under different nitriding gas mixture at 500 degrees C for 10h and tenifered for 45 min at temperature 590 degrees C followed by oxidation process for 10 min at 430 degrees C. For comparing the properties of samples treated by these selected technologies, the test "ball on flat" was carried out on the tribometer device UMT-3 and the corrosion resistance evaluation was realized by the NSS corrosion tests in the condensation chamber. The results were supplemented by the GDOES concentration profiles analyses, microhardness (HV 0.05), surface hardness, and microstructure evaluation. Based on the wear and corrosion tests, it was found that above evaluated technologies are suitable for increasing of wear and corrosion resistance simultaneously, which can be useful in weapons production.