Effect of Pack Boronizing on Microstructure and Microhardness of 304 Stainless Steel

Abstract:

The implementation of boronizing in low alloy steel had been implemented tremendously in past years as this method offers excellent surface protection that led to enhancement of hardness and wear of the material. In conjunction to that, few parameters had been recognized as the factor that promotes boron diffusion into the surface of the material which is the selection of boronizing temperature and time. This study concentrated on the effect of pack boronizing on the boride layer thickness of 304 stainless steel which contained high amount of alloying elements. The microstructural analysis and boron layer thickness was measured and observed using optical microscopy and SEM analyzer. The microhardness of the material was measured using Vickers microhardness tester. The results portrayed that boronizing successfully induced boronizing layer containing FeB and Fe₂B phases with thickness of 15μm. This resulted in major improvement of the microhardness values with improvement of 5 times compared to non-boronized samples.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 740)
• Pages: 54-59
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.740.54
• Online since: June 2017
• Authors: Siti Khadijah Alias*, Bulan Abdullah, Mahesh Talari, Muhammad Hafizuddin Jumadin, Mohd Faizul Idham, Azianti Ismail
• Keywords: 304 Stainless Steel, Boronizing, Microhardness, Microstructure

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