Abstract

REIS, R. F. dos  and  NEIDERT, R.. Influence of pre-cleaning by sputtering in plasma nitriding of stainless steel. Matéria (Rio J.) [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.2, pp. 683-689. ISSN 1517-7076.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1517-70762011000200004.

Samples of ISO 5832-1 stainless steel were nitrided for 2h in a gas mixture of 50% vol. N₂ and 50% vol. H₂ at a temperature of 420 ºC. Before plasma treatment, the samples were cleaned by cathodic sputtering, in the reactor, using different parameters. The following analytical techniques were used: optical microscopy (OM) and microhardness. The results showed that the use of a cleaning step by sputtering prior to processing can promote significant changes in the results obtained by plasma nitriding. It was also found that the use of hydrogen as a sputtering agent causes no change in the results compared to a processing performed without this cleanup step.

Keywords : Plasma nitriding; sputtering; stainless steel.