Microstructure and wear behavior of DC-pulsed plasma nitrided AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel

Austenitic stainless steel are used in industrial applications, mainly due to their good corrosion resistance; however, their low hardness and poor wear performance impose strong limitations in many cases. In this work, the wear behavior of the unnitrided and DC-pulsed plasma nitrided AISI 316L stainless steel has been investigated using an Amsler-Disc-Machine under rolling-sliding contact conditions. The microstructure was studied by X-ray diffraction and the worn surface, subsurface, and wear debris were analyzed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and microhardness testing. The obtained results show that pulsed plasma nitriding improves the wear resistance of the AISI 316L and different wear mechanisms were observed depending on the normal applied load.