Research and development of surface modifications of bearing steels by means of ion nitridation

Basic requirements placed on rolling bearing components include the high fatigue limit, the wear resistance and the corrosion resistance. As full production of bearings from materials with these attributes would be quite expensive, surface modifications are used to improve mechanical characteristics. This thesis deals with application of layers to the bearing steel by means of ion nitridation. It studies effects of input conditions of the ion nitridation and of the surface condition on tribological characteristics of the bearing steel with the above mentioned finishing. The study employed the interaction light microscopy, the scanning electron microscopy equipped by energy dispersive chemical microanalysis, the hardness measurement by Vickers, the glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy, and methods of the phase analysis by means of the X-ray diffraction were used