Effect of Nitrogen on Stainless Steel Material at Low Temperature Salt Bath Solution Applicable to Ship Propeller Blades
Ram.Subbiah1, S. Satheesh2, Shoan C. Sunny3, G. Kishor4, K.Fahad5, R.Rajavel6

1Ram.Subbiah, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TJS Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
2S. Satheesh, Final Year Mechanical Engineering, TJS Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
3Shoan C.Sunny, Final Year Mechanical Engineering, TJS Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
4G.Kishor, Final Year Mechanical Engineering, TJS Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
5K. Fahad, Final Year Mechanical Engineering, TJS Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
6Dr. R. Rajavel, Professor & Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Velammal Engineering College, Chennai, India.

Manuscript received on 20 March 2014 | Revised Manuscript received on 25 March 2014 | Manuscript published on 30 March 2014 | PP: 142-144 | Volume-3 Issue-1, March 2014 | Retrieval Number: A1028033114/2014©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: Energetic nitrogen implantation into 316LN stainless steels or nickel-chromium alloys leads to the formation of a very hard and wear resistant surface layer with an expanded lattice. Austenitic stainless steels can be hardened at temperatures around 450-5500C using energetic nitrogen into ion implantation while retaining the corrosion resistance. The expanded austenite is characterized by a concentration dependent diffusion coefficient, strongly increasing at higher nitrogen concentrations. A comparison of the phase formation under identical process conditions at 4500C were nitrided and investigated at different time parameters. Low temperature salt bath nitriding of austenitic stainless steels can produce a specified nitrided layer with high hardness and good corrosion resistance. In this study, various austenitic stainless steel specimens were low temperature salt bath nitrided. As the application goes behind the ship propeller blades, these blades are always under salt waters. Due to this, these blades get corrode easily and loss its life in a very short period of time. In order to improve the corrosion resistance and wear resistance of these blades, salt bath nitriding is done on the blades and the effect of nitrogen on the specimens were investigated by various analyzing techniques using an optical microscope, scanning electron microscope analysis. Wear test were carried out by a pin on disc machine. The thickness of the nitrided layers increased with an increase in the process temperature, and the thickness of the layer formed on AISI 316LN steel is thickest in all substrate steels. The wear resistance of every stainless steel was obviously improved by nitriding treatment.
Keywords: Liquid Nitriding, Ship Propeller Blades, Scanning Electron Microscope.

Scope of the Article: Smart Solutions – Wearable Sensors and Smart Glasses