Ferritic Nitrocarburizing of SAE 1010 Plain Carbon Steel Parts

Ferritic nitrocarburizing offers excellent wear, scuffing, corrosion and fatigue resistance by producing a thin compound layer and diffusion zone containing ε (Fe_2-3(C, N)), γ′ (Fe₄N), cementite (Fe₃C) and various alloy carbides and nitrides on the material surface. It is a widely accepted surface treatment process that results in smaller distortion than carburizing and carbonitriding processes. However this smaller distortion has to be further reduced to prevent the performance issues, out of tolerance distortion and post grinding work hours/cost in an automotive component. A numerical model has been developed to calculate the nitrogen and carbon composition profiles of SAE 1010 torque converter pistons during nitrocarburizing treatment. The nitrogen composition profiles are modeled against the part thickness to predict distortion. Experimental composition profiles of torque converter pistons are reported for model validation and to determine the effect of nitrogen composition on distortion. The surface residual stresses predicted by the model are also compared to the measured residual stresses. The correlations between nitrocarburizing temperature, distortion and composition profiles are discussed using the modeling results.