Response of cast austenitic stainless steel to low temperature plasma carburizing.

The response of a cast 316 type austenitic stainless steel to the novel low temperature plasma carburizing process has been investigated in this work. The cast steel has a dendritic structure with a mix of austenite, ferrite and carbide phases. The results show that such a complex structure responds well to the carburizing process, and the inter-dendrite regions containing ferrite and carbides can be transformed to expanded austenite to form a continuous and uniform layer supersaturated with carbon. Such a layer is precipitation free and possesses a high hardness and good corrosion resistance.