PMO Zone Blog

Gaseous Ferritic Nitrocarburizing On The Go

Nitrocarburizing is an array of case hardening processes that diffuse nitrogen and carbon into ferrous metals at sub-critical temperatures. The processing temperature ranges from 525 to 650 degrees Celsius; at this temperature, steels and other ferrous alloys are still in a ferritic phase, which is beneficial compared to other case hardening processes that occur in the austentic phase.  There are four main classes of ferritic nitrocarburizing which are gaseous, salt bath, ion or plasma, and fluidized-bed.It has the extra advantage of inducing little shape distortion during the hardening process. This is because of the low processing temperature, which decreases thermal shocks and avoids phase transitions in steel.