Mechanical and metallurgical properties of ion-nitrided austenitic-stainless steel welds

Ion nitriding is an operation widely used in industry to harden materials surface. Nowadays, friction welding is one of the special welding methods used for welding the same or different kinds of materials. Especially in industry, it can be necessary to use materials after having operated them with different techniques or to use materials obtained by different manufacturing techniques. Investigating the mechanical and metallurgical properties of this kind of materials can be crucial. In this study, austenitic-stainless steel was used as an experimental material. Additionally, the samples of austenitic stainless steel with a diameter of 10 mm were joined by friction welding. The samples were subjected to ion nitriding process at 550 °C for 24 and 60 h. Then, tensile, fatigue, notch-impact and hardness tests were applied to the weldless and welded parts, and metallographic examinations were carried out. It was found that chromium and iron nitrides precipitated along the grain boundaries and in the middle of the grains. Spectrum patterns revealed that the most dominant phases resulted from the formation of CrN, Fe4N and Fe3N. However, the tests revealed that high temperature and longer time of ion nitriding caused a decrease in the values of fatigue and tensile strengths as well as in the notch-impact toughness in the ion nitrided joints.