The influence of heat treatment on the nitriding layer on austenitic steel

Abstract The article will be focused on the analysis of the influence of heat treatment on the nitriding layer, which will be applied on austenitic steel. AISI 304 austenitic steel delivered without heat treatment will be used as experimental material. The nitriding layer will be applied to the austenitic steel samples by plasma nitriding. Then, after plasma nitriding, samples will be subjected to heat treatment. Solution annealing and sensitization will be chosen as heat treatment. Experiments deal with microstructural material analysis, fractographic analysis, mechanical and fatigue tests.