Influence of temperature in arc-activated plasma nitriding of maraging steel in solution annealed and aged conditions

Chemical composition and micro-hardness profiling, glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), metallographic tests, corrosion studies and wear resistance tests were carried out. The results demonstrate the feasibility of arc-activated ion nitriding to achieve significant improvements of the surface properties of maraging steels and to merge together thermochemical and aging processes, thus reducing their processing time and energy consumption.