Surface Characteristics and Performance of Stainless Steel AISI 316L of Low Temperature Hybrid Thermochemical Treatment

Austenitic stainless steels are the most popular materials in the stainless steel due to their excellent corrosion resistance and good forming characteristics. Nevertheless, this type of materials has low hardness as well as poor wear resistance due to the inherent austenitic structure. Earlier attempts to increase the surface hardness and wear resistance of austenitic stainless steels by surface treatments have led to the deterioration in corrosion resistance arising from the depletion in chromium in the hardened layer. The development of low temperature surface treatment carried out at temperatures lower than 500°C has been successfully conducted by innovative techniques including plasma nitriding, ion beam nitriding and ion implantation.