Gas Nitriding is a heat treatment method applied to increase resistance by helping to dissolve nitrogen and hard nitride precipitates to complete the surface treatment process. During the nitriding process, a hard layer is formed on the surface of the material by applying diffusion of nitrogen to the steel surface.
Nitriding furnaces are furnaces where the nitriding process is carried out. These furnaces, which are in horizontal and vertical type, are the surface hardening process performed between 480 and 580°C in nitriding process. It is a process applied to alloy-rich steels. With this application, a hard layer is formed on the steel surface that is resistant to wear and corrosion.
Vertical Type Nitriding Furnace
Vertical type nitriding furnaces generally have a Kn-controlled structure. In addition, it uses a touch screen and a color operator panel. From the perspective of the pattern, it takes up less space because it is vertical.
Horizontal Type Nitriding Furnace
The horizontal type nitriding furnace generally exhibits close characteristics with the vertical type nitriding furnace. However, in contrast to the vertical type, it has a horizontal image in terms of image.
Apart from these types, the existence of different nitriding furnaces should also be mentioned. For example, gas nitriding furnaces are one of them.
Gas Nitriding Furnaces
Gas nitriding furnaces are furnaces produced in horizontal and vertical types, similar to general nitriding furnaces. Likewise, the nitriding process can be expressed as a surface hardening process applied in gas nitriding furnaces using different parameters in the temperature range of 490 to 580°C.
Gas nitriding is a preferred application for alloy steels. Under high temperatures, nitrogen atoms diffuse to the steel surface as interstitial atoms, forming a very hard layer on the steel surface that is resistant to wear and corrosion. As a result of this process, there is an extremely hard white layer and a layer called diffusion layer on the steel surface. Doing it at a low temperature helps a lot in minimizing distortion.
The nitriding depth varies between approximately 0.05 mm and 0.8 mm depending on the process conditions and material type. In order to obtain the best efficiency after the nitriding process, hardened and tempered materials that are not decarburized are preferred. When the appropriate nitriding potential is provided at low temperature, a biphasic (Y/ε – nitride) nitration layer is formed.