Enhancement of surface properties of 45 steel using plasma immersion ion implantation

Summary form only given. We have devised a variety of treatment processes using PIII, including radio-frequency (RF) plasma nitriding, RF plasma nitriding and nitrogen PIII, Ti deposition in conjunction with nitrogen PIII (IBED), as well as Cr deposition followed by nitrogen PIII (IBED). To assess the efficacy of the processes, the microhardness and mass loss due to wear were measured for both the untreated and treated 45 samples. A salt fog test was also conducted to evaluate the resistance against rusting. Our experimental results show that the microhardness and resistance against rusting of the treated 45 steel samples are much improved, and the mass loss due to wear is reduced substantially. In this paper, we compare the effectiveness of each treatment technique in addition to showing supporting data.