Formation of Chromium Carbide Layer on Carburized AISI 1020 Steel by Thermal Reactive Diffusion (TRD) Technique and Evaluation of its Kinetics

Carbide layer produced by thermal reactive diffusion (TRD) technique onto metals and alloys has characteristic properties including wear, oxidation and corrosion resistance as well as relatively high surface hardness. In the present work, kinetics of formation of chromium carbide layer on carburized AISI 1020 steel at temperatures of 900, 1000 and 1100 ºC for 3 to 9 hours was studied. The presence of Cr7C3 phase formed on the surface of specimens was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Cross-sectional observations of optical and SEM micrographs showed that chromium carbide layer formed on the steel surface were continuous and relatively uniform. The surface microhardness values for the coated steel samples were between 530 and 1321 HV (under 200g load). The evaluation of kinetics of chromium carbide layer formed using salt bath method showed that there is a parabolic relationship between the layer thickness and the soaking time. In addition, the activation energy for chromium carbide formation on carburized AISI 1020 steel in borax salt bath was obtained to be 97.781 KJ/mol. Moreover, the contour diagrams were suggested for prediction of thickness of carbide layer and surface microhardness. The possibility of using a series of mathematical equations for predicting carbide thickness and surface microhardness was also investigated.