Influence of the physical parameters of a glow discharge on the tribological properties of nitrided steels

The article studies the influence of the discharge energy parameters (specific capacitance, current density and voltage in gas discharge chamber) on physicochemical and tribological properties of structural steels, which were previously nitrided in glow discharge, under conditions of dry friction. To study the wear resistance of the samples, a special device was designed and for tribological tests a universal friction machine was used with the determination of the amount of wear depending on the test time. It has been established that the tribotechnical characteristics of the surface layers decrease with a decrease in the relative capacity of the discharge in the chamber, since this leads to a decrease in the thickness parameter of the nitrided layer. It has been established that nitrides are not formed on the surface when the energy characteristics reach the lowest values, while only the α-phase is present in the surface. As a result, it is shown that the control of the performance characteristics of machine parts in the process of nitriding in a glow discharge is effective not only by technological modes, but by varying the energy parameters of the glow discharge.