The influence of rf plasma time on the carbonitriding treatment of titanium

Inductively coupled radio frequency plasma surface treatment was applied to commercially pure titanium sheets. The goal was to increase the efficiency of the carbonitriding process, i.e., to decrease the plasma treatment time to a few tens of minutes instead of several hours. The effects of different plasma-processing times on the microstructure and mechanical properties of plasma-carbonitrided Ti were examined. The characteristics of the carbonitrided layer were investigated by microhardness testing, surface roughness measurements, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The surface microhardness and the thickness of the compound layer of carbonitrided Ti increase with the plasma-processing time. Surface energy, yield strength and Young's modulus for carbonitrided titanium were calculated from the Vickers microhardness data. An attempt was made to interpret the high carbonitriding rate and the high microhardness values of carbonitrided titanium with respect to previously published results.