Features of Nitriding of the Surface of a Small-Modulus Toothed Crown in Pulsed-Periodic Gas Beam-Plasma Formation at Low Pressure

The paper presents the results of a study of the homogeneity of the thickness of the modified layer on the surface of a toothed crown made of structural steel 38Cr2MoAl with a tooth modulus m = 0.5 and the number of teeth 14, obtained as a result of ion-plasma nitriding in a beam-plasma formation generated in a stationary and pulse-periodic non-self-sustained glow discharge with a hollow cathode at low, about 1 Pa, pressure. The thicknesses of the nitrided layer at the top and at the base of the tooth obtained at the discharge pulse filling factors γ = 100, 85, and 50% are compared. It is shown that the minimum difference in the thicknesses of the nitrided layer, which is about 6%, is characteristic of the regime with a discharge pulse filling factor γ = 85%. Gas beam-plasma formations formed at low pressure are promising in the processes of ion-plasma nitriding of parts of complex shape.