Microstructural and tribological studies on surface modified austenitic stainless steel by sputtering laser and plasma techniques

Abstract

Austenitic stainless steels are the most widely used materials in various industries because of their excellent corrosion resistance But these steels have low tribological properties like low hardness poor wear resistance and consequent tendency to galling, scoring and seizure due to which the self mating of stainless steels during sliding exhibits severe wear Among various austenitic stainless steels the AISI 316L grade Stainless Steels 316L SS are commonly used material due to its high temperature and corrosion resistance behaviour When 316L SS slides against the same material in air severe metallic wear surface damage and subsurface deformation occurs due to the formation of strong adhesion bond at the contact junctions In order to avoid the direct metal to metal contact the several surface engineering processes were performed on 316L stainless steel surface to improve the tribological properties In surface engineering process various surface modification and coating processes are performed to improve the life of engineering components such as bearings pistons gears piston rings etc The conventional surface modification processes like carburising nitriding and boriding results in rapid precipitation of chromium rich carbides nitrides at the grain boundaries as this process involves temperature above 5500C As a result it induces chromium depletion in the alloy and compromise the corrosion resistance newline