Cold gas spraying of solution-hardened 316L grade stainless steel powder

Due to their excellent corrosion resistance, austenitic stainless steels are suitable for surface protection applications. The low wear resistance often limits the application potential. An interstitial hardening of the surface layer area can solve this problem in the area of massive wrought alloys. Further improvement potential results from the transfer to surface technology. For this purpose, powder feedstock of the alloy system AISI316L grade stainless steel was gas nitrocarburised at low temperatures. The formation of a metastable expanded austenitic phase was achieved. Subsequently, the processing was carried out by cold gas spraying. Due to the high process kinetics and at the same time low temperature stress, dense coatings were produced while maintaining the metastable phase content. Compared to solid reference systems, an improvement of the scratch resistance was realized.