Production and Characterization of Boride and Carbide Layers on AISI 15B30 Steel

The integrity of steel components might be achieved by surface protection by layers composed of borides, carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides. The production of layers can be conducted using the boriding and Thermoreactive Deposition (TRD) process, resulting to layers with high surface hardness. In this work, boriding and TRD treatments were performed for the production of boride and both vanadium and niobium carbide layers on the substrates of AISI 15B30 steel to evaluate properties such as hardness, adhesive wear resistance, surface adhesion and chemical compounds present in the layers. For this purpose, layers were characterized by optical microscope, Knoop microhardness, microadhesive wear test, Rockwell C indentation adhesion according to VDI 3198 and X - ray diffraction. The results showed layers with high hardness (1400 - 2500 HK), greater microadhesive wear resistance up to 15 times higher when compared to the substrate and excellent surface adhesion.