Effect of Hybrid Surface Treatments on Fretting Fatigue Strength of Stainless Steel

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of hybrid surface treatments on the fretting fatigue strength of austenitic stainless steel JIS SUS316. The hybrid surface treatments were composed of plasma nitriding (hereafter, PN) and fine particle bombarding (FPB) or PN and diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating. Although the combination of PN and FPB slightly increased the friction coefficient, it improved wear resistance through the formation of a hardened layer. The combination of PN and DLC coating markedly improved the friction-wear properties because the thin DLC layer was supported by the hardened layer formed below it. Neither treatment had any influence on mechanical properties. The above hybrid surface treatments greatly improved the fretting fatigue strength. The improvement percentage was 44% in the case of the combination of PN and FPB, and reached 54% with the combination of PN and DLC coating. To examine corrosion resistance, the hybrid-surface-treated materials were fully immersed into 5% salt water held at 363K (90 degrees C). The results showed that their corrosion resistance was maintained for 2.42Ms (28 days) without surface damage.