This chapter details suitable steels for gas nitriding and discusses conventional gas nitriding, plasma (Ion) nitriding, the ferritic nitrocarburizing processes, gaseous ferritic nitrocarburizing, plasma nitrocarburizing, and the salt-bath ferritic nitrocarburizing processes.

Nitriding is a surface hardening heat treatment that introduces nitrogen into the surface of steel while it is in the ferritic condition. Gas nitriding using ammonia as the nitrogen-carrying species is the most commonly employed process and is emphasized in this chapter. Nitriding produces a wear- and fatigue-resistant surface on gear teeth and is used in applications where gears are not subjected to high shock loads or contact stress. It is useful for gears that need to maintain their surface hardness at elevated temperatures. Gears used in industrial, automotive, and aerospace applications are commonly nitrided. This chapter discusses the processes involved in gas, controlled, and ion nitriding.

This chapter discusses the metallurgical considerations and process requirements of nitriding. It presents the pioneering work of Adolph Machlet and Adolph Fry and presents early developments. One such development is the Floe process, a two-stage treatment used to reduce the formation of a compound layer on the surface of a nitrided steel.

Several process parameters must be considered to ensure success in achieving desired metallurgical properties and to minimize distortion. This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the liberation of nitrogen, dissociation of the gas at the selected nitriding temperature, why ammonia is used, distortion, and preheat treatment.

This chapter presents the salts used and the process advantages of salt bath nitriding. It describes bath testing and analysis including the materials and equipment, analysis procedure, and determination of sodium carbonate and sodium cyanate for titration testing of the nitriding salt bath. The chapter explains the procedures for maintenance of the salt bath and related equipment. It also discusses safety precautions and design parameters for furnace equipment.

This chapter begins with an overview of the history of ion nitriding. This is followed by sections that describe how the ion nitriding process works, glow discharge characteristics, process parameters requiring good control, and the applications of plasma processing. The chapter explores what happens in the ion nitriding process and provides information on its gas ratios. It describes the reactions that occur at the surface of the material being treated during iron nitriding and defines corner effect and nitride networking. Further, the chapter provides information on the stability of surface layers and processes involved in the degradation of surface finish and control of the compound zone formation. Gases primarily used for ion nitriding and the control parameters used in ion nitriding are also covered. The chapter also presents the philosophies and advantages of the plasma generation technique for nitriding. It concludes with processes involved in oxynitriding.

Ion nitriding equipment can be categorized into two groups: cold-wall continuous direct current (dc) equipment and hot-wall pulsed dc equipment. This chapter focuses on these two categories along with other important considerations for ion (plasma) nitriding equipment and processing. Other important considerations discussed include the hollow cathode effect, sputter cleaning, furnace loading, pressure/voltage relationships, workpiece masking, and furnace configuration options. The chapter describes five methods of cooling parts from the process temperature to an acceptable exposure temperature after plasma nitriding. The chapter also presents some of the advantages of the pulsed plasma process.

A fluidized-bed furnace system can be used for the gas nitriding process. This chapter focuses on fluidized-bed nitriding. It discusses the methods of heating a fluidized bed. The heating system can be electrical or gas, and internal or external. The chapter describes nitriding and oxynitriding processes in the fluidized-bed furnace. It also explains how to operate the fluid bed for nitriding. The chapter provides a discussion on the measurement of the gas dissociation.

This chapter first lists the compositions of typical steels that are suitable for nitriding. It then presents considerations for steel selection. The chapter also shows the influence of alloying elements on hardness after nitriding and the depth of nitriding. It provides a detailed discussion on plasma nitriding of type 422 stainless steel, nitriding of type 440A and type 630 (17-4 PH) stainless steel. The chapter also discusses plasma nitride case depths.

The nitriding process can be applied to various materials and part geometries. This chapter focuses on tool steels, pure irons, low-alloy steels, and maraging steels. Various considerations such as the surface metallurgy requirements of the die, including case depth, compound layer formation, and temperature, are also discussed in this chapter. The chapter also addresses steel selection and surface metallurgy of gears.

Stop-off coatings prevent nitriding of selected areas on components. This chapter discusses the processes, advantages, and disadvantages of stop-off techniques for gas nitriding, salt bath nitriding, and ion nitriding.

Nitriding is a case-hardening process used for alloy steel gears and is quite similar to case carburizing. Nitriding of gears can be done in either a gas or liquid medium containing nitrogen. This chapter discusses the processes involved in gas nitriding. It reviews the effects of white layer formation in nitrided gears and presents general recommendations for nitrided gears. The chapter describes the microstructure, overload and fatigue damage, bending-fatigue life, cost, and distortion of nitrided gears. Information on nitriding steels used in Europe and the applications of nitrided gears are also provided. The chapter presents case studies on successful nitriding of a gear and on the failure of nitrided gears used in a gearbox subjected to a load with wide fluctuations.

Several limitations in achieving optimal gear performance with conventional nitriding have led researchers to work on a variety of novel and improved nitriding processes. Of these, ion/plasma nitriding offers some promising results, which are reviewed in this chapter. The chapter concludes with a case history describing the application of ion nitriding to an internal ring gear of an epicyclic gearbox.

Oxidation usually dominates high-temperature corrosion reactions, but under certain conditions, some alloys may be affected by nitridation as well. This chapter explains why nitridation occurs and how it attacks various metals, in some cases, penetrating deeper than oxidation. It provides images and data describing the nitridation process and its effects on metals and alloys in high-temperature air as well as NH3-H2O, NH3 and H2-N2-NH3, and N2 environments. It also includes test data showing that nitridation is more severe in a nitrogen atmosphere than an ammonia environment at 1090 °C (2000 °F).

The unique advantages of the nitriding process were recognized by German researchers in the early 1920s. It was used to treat steels for applications that required: high torque, high wear resistance; abrasive wear resistance; corrosion resistance; and high surface compressive strength. This chapter focuses on key process considerations and factors that helped nitriding gain acceptance. These factors include a low-temperature process, no quench requirement, minimal distortion, high hardness values, and resistance to oxidation.