Study of the Wear Resistance Plasma Nitrided GGG60 by Optimization of Surface Treatment Conditions Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

In this study, the wear performance of spheroidal graphite cast iron subjected to plasma nitriding at different temperatures and treatment durations was investigated. The plasma nitriding parameters were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) due to the output performance. Plasma nitriding was applied at three different temperatures (400, 450, 500 °C) and three different heat treatment durations (0.5, 2, 4 h). Wear tests were performed by ball-on-disk method for 60 minutes and for three different wear loads (10, 20, 30 N). The specimens were investigated for hardness, microstructure and wear performance. The RSM model was then created by using the wear resistance features. Plasma nitriding showed better wear performance than the untreated specimen for all treatment conditions. Hardness, nitrided layer thickness and wear performance remarkably improved with increasing temperature and process duration. The parameter that affects volume loss the most is wear load with 70.66% according to RSM modeling results. The most effective parameter in the wear rate change was found to be treatment duration at 42.85%. The model was able to predict the results with an error of 2.11% for volume loss and 9.14% for wear rate. The prediction results are very close to the experimental results. This clearly shows that the model can be used to determine the plasma nitriding parameters.