Surface Alloying of SUS 321 Chromium-Nickel Steel by an Electron-Plasma Process

The mechanisms of forming nanostructured, nanophase layers are revealed and analyzed in austenitic steel subjected to surface alloying using an electron-plasma process. Nanostructured, nanophase layers up to 30 μm in thickness were formed by melting of the film/substrate system with an electron beam generated by a SOLO facility (Institute of High Current Electronics, SB RAS), Tomsk), which ensured crystallization and subsequent quenching at the cooling rates within the range 10⁵–10⁸ K/s. The surface was modified with structural stainless steel specimens (SUS 321 steel). The film/substrate system (film thickness 0.5 μm) was formed by a plasma-assisted vacuum-arc process by evaporating a cathode made from a sintered pseudoalloy of the following composition: Zr – 6 at.% Ti – 6 at.% Cu. The film deposition was performed in a QUINTA facility equipped with a PINK hot-cathode plasma source and DI-100 arc evaporators with accelerated cooling of the process cathode, which allowed reducing the size and fraction of the droplet phase in the deposited film. It is found that melting of the film/substrate system (Zr–Ti–Cu)/(SUS 321 steel) using a high-intensity pulsed electron beam followed by the high-rate crystallization is accompanied by the formation of α-iron cellular crystallization structure and precipitation of Cr₂Zr, Cr₃С₂ and TiC particles on the cell boundaries, which as a whole allowed increasing microhardness by a factor of 1.3, Young’s modulus – by a factor of 1.2, wear resistance – by a factor of 2.7, while achieving a three-fold reduction in the friction coefficient.