Research on Carbon Migration in Steel by the Plasma Surface Alloying Process

The research of plasma surface alloying on carbon steels are processed under different technique conditions, for approaching the principle of carbon migration in steel by the double-glow discharge plasma surface alloying process. The results indicate that when carbon atoms diffuse in the surface, decarbonized layer forms in the frontier of the alloying layer; the strong decarbonization phenomenon in the double-glow discharge plasma surface alloying technology is the co-result of the surface sputtering effect and the diffusion of the carbon atoms. The decarbonized layer, which has two kinds of microstructure, namely, equal-axes crystal and icicle crystal, will be deeper with the increase of cathode voltage, the temperature, and the retaining time.