Investigation of wear properties of borided austenitic stainless steel different temperatures and times

Although the corrosion properties of austenitic stainless steels are good, their surface strength is low and their usage areas are limited. Many processes are implemented to improve the surface properties in order to expand the areas of use. For this purpose, in this study, AISI 303 steels are boronized by pack boriding method at 1123 K, 1173 K and 1223 K for 2, 4 and 6 h and the effect of surface coating on the tribological properties of steel by using box boring method. The hardness values were obtained by micro-hardness tester and the phases formed in the layer were determined by XRD method. In the XRD analysis, FeB, Fe2B, CrB and MnB phases were formed on the boride layer. Wear behavior of AISI 303 steel was determined by ball-on-disc abrasion method in dry environment. The hardness value of AISI 303 steel was 240 HV0.05, while the boronizing process resulted in a hardness of 1897 HV0.05. As a result, it was seen that an increase in the thickness and a decrease in the wear rate were observed with an increase in the boriding time and temperature, the decrease in the boriding temperature resulted in a decrease in the thickness of boride layer obtained on the boronized steel.