Numerical simulation and experimental study on carbonitriding process for 20Cr steel

Carbonitriding is used primarily to improve the hardness and wear resistance of steels. A carbonitrided case has better hardenability than a carburized one because nitrogen increases the hardness of steels. Really, the hardness against tempering time at 350 °C for different methods of case hardening is not the same. Carburizing produces a greater decrease in hardness, while carbonitriding layers lose hardness more slowly because of the stable nitride compound dispersed in the matrix. With many advantages, carbonitriding technology is widely researched and applied in production. In this paper the influence of technological parameters such as temperature, time and gas composition on the thickness and mechanical properties of the carbonitriding layer is studied by numerical simulation combined with experiment. The compatibility in the experimental and simulation results proves that the numerical simulation technique can be reliably used as a method to predict consequences of the practical carbonitriding process and to optimize the technical parameters.