The wear behaviour of duplex treated AISI 5140 steel

This work aims to investigate the wear behavior of manganese phosphate coating on plasma nitrided AISI 5140 steel.

Prior to manganese phosphate coating, plasma nitriding of substrates was performed at gas mixture of 50 percent H₂ and 50 percent N₂, for the different treatment parameters. The structural, mechanical and tribological properties of the substrates were determined using hardness test, optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy , X‐ray diffraction and pin‐on‐disk tribotester. The wear behavior of untreated, nitrided and duplex treated substrates was evaluated under dry sliding conditions.

The results indicated that the duplex treatment improved the wear behavior. It was also observed that manganese phosphating of the nitrided substrates at low temperature (450°C‐2h‐N) resulted in a decrease of the wear rate and yielded a reduction in the friction coefficient by forming a transfer film at the counter face.

This study can be a practical reference and offers insight into the effects of duplex treating on the increase of wear resistance.