Kinetics of boriding of AISI W1 steel

A technologically interesting characteristic of boriding is the production of a hard, wear-resistant coating layer on the steel substrate. In this study, case properties of borided AISI W1 steel-has been investigated by conducting a series of experiments in Ekabor-I powders at the process temperature of 1123-1323 K at 50 K intervals for periods of 1-8 h. The presence of borides FeB and Fe2B formed on the surface of steel substrate was confirmed by optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Cross-sectional observation in the optical microscope revealed smooth and compact morphology of the borided layer. The distribution of alloy elements from the surface to the interior was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The hardness of the boride layer formed on the surface of the steel substrate was higher than 1500 HV. It was concluded that the optimum temperature for AISI W1 steel borided in Ekabor-I powders was approximately 1223 K for hardness in 10 mum depth, and the hardness change with boriding temperature was related to the grain size of the treated steel. The kinetics of boriding show a parabolic relationship between layer thickness and process time, and the activation energy for the process is 171.2 +/- 16.6 kJ mol(-1). Moreover, an attempt was made to investigate the possibility of predicting the iso-thickness of boride layer variation and to establish an empirical relationship between process parameters of boriding and boride layer. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved