JP2015025161A - Surface hardening method of iron or iron alloy and apparatus of the same, and surface hardening structure of iron or iron alloy - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a surface hardening method of iron or an iron alloy, which can provide a part from a cheap steel material such as carbon steel with a sufficient surface hardness and a small degree of thermal strain, and a small degree of dimensional change, a surface hardening apparatus of the iron or rion alloy, and a surface hardening structure of the iron or iron alloy obtained thereof.SOLUTION: A process of forming a two-layer structure of FeNand nitrogen martensite on an object to be treated includes the following steps: the object to be treated is transported to a heating room where ammonia gas is supplied; a temperature of the heating room is set to the temperature of a mixed phase region of austenite and iron nitride (FeN) in an iron-nitrogen phase equilibrium diagram so that the object to be treated is nitrided such that a surface nitrogen concentration of the object to be treated becomes a nitrogen concentration of FeN; and the object to be treated is rapidly cooled and heated again.

Description

  The present invention relates to a surface hardening method in which nitrogen is supplied to the surface of iron or iron alloy with ammonia gas to harden the surface, a surface hardening device suitable for use in the method, and the surface of iron or iron alloy obtained by the method It relates to a cured structure.

  Conventionally, gas nitriding treatment, gas soft nitriding treatment, and nitriding quenching treatment are known as treatment methods for hardening the steel surface with ammonia gas.

In the gas nitriding treatment, a hard compound (nitride) of alloy components such as Al, Cr, V, Ti, and Nb and nitrogen is formed on the surface of the alloy steel, so that strength, wear resistance, friction resistance, This is a surface hardening treatment for improving galling, and is performed by supplying ammonia gas alone or a mixed gas such as ammonia gas and nitrogen gas or hydrogen gas into the furnace.
Since this gas nitriding treatment is not accompanied by transformation, the heat treatment strain and dimensional change are small, and the gas nitriding treatment is often applied to a part finished in a final shape. This processing method has a problem that the hardened layer is deeper and the hardness is higher than the gas soft nitriding process described later, but expensive alloy steel is required and the processing time is long.

The gas soft nitriding treatment is a treatment for improving wear resistance, friction resistance, and galling resistance by generating a compound of iron and nitrogen (nitride) on the surface of carbon steel or the like. Processing is performed by supplying a mixed gas of RX gas, a mixed gas of ammonia gas, nitrogen gas, and carbon dioxide gas into the furnace.
Since this gas nitrocarburizing treatment is not accompanied by transformation, it is often applied to parts finished in a final shape with little heat treatment strain and dimensional change. This processing method is suitable for processing an inexpensive material such as carbon steel, which has a shorter processing time than the gas nitriding process described above, but has a problem that the hardened layer is shallow (around 10 μm) and the hardness is low.

Nitrogen quenching treatment involves intrusion and solid solution of nitrogen in the steel in the austenite region of the Fe-N phase diagram, followed by quenching to produce hard nitrogen martensite, thereby increasing strength, wear resistance, friction resistance, This is a surface hardening treatment for improving galling resistance, and is performed by supplying a mixed gas of ammonia gas and nitrogen gas into the furnace.
This nitriding quenching process is a process located between the gas carburizing process and the above-described gas nitriding process or gas soft nitriding process, and is suitable for processing inexpensive materials such as carbon steel with a short processing time. The hardening depth as in the gas carburizing process cannot be obtained, and the heat treatment strain and dimensional change as in the gas nitriding process and the gas soft nitriding process cannot be obtained.

As a prior art, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a nitriding treatment in which a nitride is formed on a steel surface with ammonia gas, and the treatment temperature is set to 580 to 700 ° C. in order to increase the nitriding efficiency. A surface hardening treatment in which the temperature is higher by about 100 ° C. is disclosed.
In Patent Document 2, the ammonia gas and nitriding at a temperature range of _{A 1} transformation point of steel (approximately 723 ° C.) to 850 ° C., to a temperature range of subsequent 650 ° C. to A ₁ transformation point (about 723 ° C.) A surface hardening treatment is disclosed in which it is gradually cooled, held for a certain period of time, and then rapidly cooled (oil cooled) to generate nitrogen martensite on the surface.
Further, in Patent Document 3, steel is nitrogenated with ammonia gas at 600 to 800 ° C., 0.05 to 1.50% nitrogen is solid-dissolved on the surface, and then rapidly cooled (oil-cooled) to be hard on the surface. A surface hardening treatment for generating nitrogen martensite is disclosed.

JP 2003-286561 A Japanese Patent Publication No.59-17167 JP 2007-46088 A

  However, in the conventional gas nitriding treatment, gas soft nitriding treatment, and nitrocarburizing treatment including the above-described prior art, as described above, there are advantages and disadvantages, and each treatment method is inexpensive such as carbon steel. It was difficult to obtain a part having a sufficiently high surface hardness and little heat treatment strain or dimensional change (that is, a part satisfying both the hardness and strain conditions) from such a steel material.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and even if an inexpensive steel material such as carbon steel is used, a surface hardness comparable to that of the nitrided surface of high alloy steel can be obtained, and heat treatment strain or Surface hardening method of iron or iron alloy capable of suppressing dimensional change to the same extent as gas nitriding treatment or gas soft nitriding treatment, surface hardening apparatus suitable for use in the method, and iron or iron alloy obtained by the method It aims at providing a surface hardening structure.

As a result of intensive studies to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have determined that the product to be processed is a mixed phase region of austenite (γ) and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N: γ ′) in an iron-nitrogen equilibrium diagram. After nitriding at a temperature, the object can be achieved by rapidly cooling and reheating the object to be processed to form a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ (α ″) and nitrogen martensite on the surface of the object to be processed. As a result, the present invention has been completed.

That is, the present invention is based on the above knowledge, and the surface hardening method according to the present invention described in claim 1 is a method for infiltrating / diffusing / dissolving nitrogen into an article to be treated composed of iron or an iron alloy. In the processing method of curing the surface of the article to be treated by rapid cooling and reheating, the article to be treated is sent into a heating chamber to which ammonia gas is supplied, and the temperature of the heating chamber is set to iron-nitrogen of the article to be treated. In the system equilibrium diagram, the surface nitrogen concentration of the article to be treated is Fe ₁₆ N ₂ (α ″) by raising the temperature to a predetermined temperature in the mixed phase region of austenite (γ) and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N: γ ′). After nitriding to a nitrogen concentration, the treated product is rapidly cooled and reheated to produce a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ (α ″) and nitrogen martensite on the treated product surface. It is a feature.

The invention according to claim 2 is the iron or iron alloy surface hardening method according to claim 1, wherein the heating chamber is a mixed phase region of austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) in an iron-nitrogen equilibrium diagram. The temperature is maintained at 620 ° C. to 650 ° C., and nitriding is performed.

The invention according to claim 3 is the surface hardening method of iron or iron alloy according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the heating chamber is made of austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) in an iron-nitrogen equilibrium diagram. Using a mixed gas of ammonia gas and nitrogen gas, a mixed gas of ammonia gas and hydrogen gas, or a mixed gas of ammonia gas, nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas as a processing gas, the mixed phase temperature is maintained at 620 ° C to 650 ° C. It is characterized by nitriding.

  Invention of Claim 4 is the surface hardening method of the iron or iron alloy as described in any one of Claims 1-3, The surface nitrogen concentration of the said to-be-processed product is 2.95 +/- 0.35 mass%. It is characterized by nitriding so that

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the surface hardening method of iron or iron alloy according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the article to be treated is cooled to 250 ° C. to 350 ° C. after the article to be treated is rapidly cooled. It is characterized by reheating at a temperature of 0 ° C.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the surface hardening method for iron or iron alloy according to claim 5, wherein the re-treatment of the article to be treated is performed at 250 ° C. to 350 ° C. for 60 minutes to 120 minutes. Is.

  The invention according to claim 7 is the method of surface hardening of iron or iron alloy according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the object to be treated is vacuum-tight and heated for nitriding the article to be treated. A hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace equipped with a stirrer was used in the chamber, and after the atmosphere of the heating chamber was brought to 100% nitrogen gas by evacuation and nitrogen return pressure, the processing gas was introduced into the heating chamber. It is characterized by this.

Invention of Claim 8 is a surface hardening apparatus used for the surface hardening method of the iron or iron alloy as described in any one of Claims 1-7, Comprising: A to-be-processed object is an iron-nitrogen system equilibrium state figure Means for maintaining the mixed phase temperature of austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) of the steel and performing nitriding so that the surface nitrogen concentration of the article to be treated becomes the nitrogen concentration of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ , It is characterized by comprising means for rapidly cooling the processed product and means for reheating the rapidly cooled processed product.

The invention according to claim 9 is characterized in that the surface hardening structure of iron or iron alloy has a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite on the surface.

According to the present invention, it is possible to generate a high-hardness two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite on the surface of an inexpensive steel material such as carbon steel, which is comparable to the nitrided surface of high alloy steel.

  Further, according to the present invention, the processing temperature is as low as 620 to 650 ° C., and the processing time is shortened to within 2 hours, so that resource-saving, energy-saving, and low-cost processing becomes possible.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the article to be treated is rapidly cooled from 620 to 650 ° C. in the iron-nitrogen equilibrium diagram, the surface of the article to be treated is made of high-hardness Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite. A two-layer structure is produced, but since the inside remains ferrite, it does not burn and does not harden. For this reason, processing with very little deformation and change in size is possible, similar to gas nitriding or gas soft nitriding.

In addition, according to the present invention, the outermost surface of the article to be treated is cured by the production of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ which has superior softening resistance to heating compared to martensite. It can be applied to severe applications such as surface pressure, high load, and high rotation.

In the conventional gas nitriding treatment, gas soft nitriding treatment, and nitriding quenching treatment described above, there is a problem that it is difficult to control the atmosphere and the nitrogen concentration on the steel surface with good accuracy and reproducibility. In the conventional gas nitriding treatment and gas soft nitriding treatment, in order to positively generate nitride, it is necessary to treat the nitrogen concentration at a high level, while in the conventional nitriding quenching treatment, the nitride is not treated. In order to produce nitrogen martensite without producing it, it was necessary to treat with a low nitrogen concentration. As a result, in the conventional gas nitriding treatment and gas soft nitriding treatment, both the high and nitriding quenching treatments had to be treated in a wide nitrogen concentration range.
On the other hand, according to the present invention, a heating wall is formed by vacuum purging (vacuum exhaustion / nitrogen gas return pressure) using a hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace having a vacuum-tight structure and equipped with a stirrer in the heating chamber. By introducing treatment gas (ammonia gas and nitrogen gas) after making nitrogen gas 100%, the atmosphere and the nitrogen concentration on the steel surface, which were considered difficult in conventional gas nitriding treatment, gas soft nitriding treatment and nitriding quenching treatment This control can be performed with high accuracy and good reproducibility.

FIG. 1 is an Fe—N system equilibrium diagram, in which the vertical axis represents temperature and the horizontal axis represents nitrogen concentration. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing the structure of the hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace used in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a heat cycle in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an optical micrograph showing a cross-sectional metallographic structure of a test piece treated by the surface hardening method of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the distance from the surface of the test piece treated by the surface hardening method of the present invention and the hardness. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the distance from the surface of the test piece treated by the surface hardening method of the present invention and the nitrogen concentration.

In the surface hardening method for iron or iron alloy of the present invention, for example, the article to be processed in the heating chamber is heated to a temperature range of 620 to 650 ° C. in a nitrogen atmosphere or under vacuum using a hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace described later. The mixture is heated to austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) mixed phase temperature in the iron-nitrogen system equilibrium diagram shown in FIG.

Here, the reason why the article to be treated is heated to a temperature range of 620 to 650 ° C. is to obtain a structure in which Fe ₄ N (γ ′) is dissolved in austenite (γ). At 650 ° C. or higher, Fe _2-3 N (ε) is dissolved in austenite (γ), and at 620 ° C. or lower, Fe ₄ N (γ ′) is dissolved in ferrite (α). Fe ₁₆ N ₂ (α ″) cannot be deposited even after rapid cooling and reheating after nitriding.

Thereafter, a certain amount of processing gas is allowed to flow into the heating chamber, and the surface of the object to be processed (workpiece) is subjected to nitrogen so that the nitrogen concentration of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ is 2.95% by mass. At that time, it is desirable to automatically control the atmosphere by measuring the ammonia gas concentration or hydrogen gas concentration in the heating chamber. However, in the case of a hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace, the flow rate of ammonia gas and nitrogen gas is only required if the processing conditions are determined. Even management can handle enough.
In addition, when the nitrogen concentration on the surface of the article to be processed is higher than 2.95% by mass, nitrides are gradually formed, and when it is lower than 2.95% by mass, nitrogen martensite is gradually formed, both of which have low surface hardness. Therefore, the atmosphere is controlled so as to be 2.95 ± 0.35 mass% in actual operation in consideration of economy. By setting the nitrogen concentration on the surface of the article to be treated to 2.60% to 3.30%, the surface of the article to be treated can be cured to a practically effective HV950 or higher.
Specifically, as the processing gas, for example, any of a mixed gas of ammonia gas and nitrogen gas, a mixed gas of ammonia gas and hydrogen gas, or a mixed gas of ammonia gas, nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas can be used.

Thereafter, the article to be treated, which has been subjected to nitriding under conditions of a treatment temperature of 620 to 650 ° C. and a surface nitrogen concentration of 2.95 ± 0.35%, is rapidly quenched (oil-cooled) in a cooling oil tank, and then 250 to Reheating in a temperature range of 350 ° C. for 60 to 120 minutes generates a two-layer structure of hard Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite on the surface of the object to be processed.
Here, when the article to be treated is reheated in a temperature range of 250 to 350 ° C., Fe ₁₆ N ₂ does not sufficiently precipitate at a temperature lower than 250 ° C., and Fe ₁₆ N ₂ becomes [αFe + Fe ₄ N ( This is because the hardness is lowered in any case. Therefore, it is desirable that the reheating temperature range is 250 to 350 ° C., which can impart sufficient hardness to the surface of the article to be processed.

In such a surface curing method of the present invention, for example, a surface curing apparatus comprising a hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace can be suitably used. The hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace includes a heating chamber for nitriding the article to be treated, and a vacuum purge chamber / oil tank for rapidly cooling (oil cooling) the article to be treated.
The heating chamber is a vacuum evacuation unit that evacuates the heating chamber, a pressure control unit that holds the pressure of the heating chamber at atmospheric pressure or higher, a heating unit that heats the heating chamber, and holds the heating chamber at a predetermined temperature. Temperature control means, heat insulation means for insulating the heating chamber, heat insulating door means for insulating the entrance of the heating chamber, stirring means for stirring the atmosphere of the heating chamber, and gas supply for supplying ammonia gas and nitrogen gas to the heating chamber Means and measuring means for measuring the ammonia gas concentration in the heating chamber atmosphere or measuring means for measuring the hydrogen gas concentration in the heating chamber atmosphere.
On the other hand, the vacuum purge chamber / oil tank (hereinafter referred to as the front chamber) includes a sealing means for sealing the entrance / exit of the front chamber, a vacuum exhaust means for evacuating the front chamber, and a pressure in the front chamber. Pressure control means for maintaining the pressure above atmospheric pressure, rapid cooling means for rapidly cooling (oil cooling) the article to be treated, heating means for heating the oil in the front chamber oil tank, and cooling means for cooling the oil in the front chamber oil tank The agitation means for agitating the oil in the front chamber oil tank and the conveyance means for conveying the article to be processed in the furnace can be provided.

  EXAMPLES Hereinafter, although this invention is demonstrated concretely based on an Example, this invention is not limited only to such an Example.

[Hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace]
FIG. 2 shows the structure of the hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace 1 used in the embodiment of the present invention. The hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace 1 includes a heating chamber 2 as a furnace body and an oil bath 4 for rapid cooling. An in-furnace transfer device 5 for moving an article to be processed placed on a tray between the front chamber 3 and the heating chamber 2; An elevating device (elevator) 6 for immersing the article to be processed in the cooling oil in the oil tank 4 is provided. Further, the front chamber 3 is provided with a pipe heater 7 for heating the cooling oil in the oil tank 4 and an oil agitator (agitator) 8 for circulating the cooling oil. A water-cooling device for cooling the water and a thermocouple for detecting the temperature of the cooling oil.

  On the other hand, the heating chamber 2 includes a radiant tube heater 10 as a heating source in the heating chamber 2 lined with a heat insulating material 9, a thermocouple 11 for detecting the temperature in the furnace, and the atmosphere (nitrogen in the furnace). ) Is forcibly stirred, and the temperature inside the furnace can be made uniform by increasing the temperature in the furnace. The heating chamber 2 is connected to processing gas supply means for supplying ammonia gas and nitrogen gas into the heating chamber 2. The processing gas supply means includes a first supply pipe that supplies ammonia gas, a second supply pipe that supplies nitrogen gas, a connection pipe that receives gas from the supply pipe and leads it to the heating chamber 2, It is comprised by the valve | bulb provided in each.

  Further, the heating chamber 2 and the front chamber 3 are each provided with an evacuation device outside the figure, and can control the atmospheric pressure independently, and a nitrogen source (not shown) via a gas control device (not shown). Nitrogen cylinder).

[Example]
First, prior to the treatment, a test piece (20 mm × 20 mm × 5 mm) made of a mechanical structure carbon steel pipe STKM-13C regulated by JIS G 3445 was prepared.
Then, for the purpose of generating a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite having a hardened layer depth of 30 μm and a surface hardness of 930 or more on the surface of this test piece and having a micro Vickers hardness of 600 mm width × The heat cycle treatment shown in FIG. 3 was performed by a hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace having the above-described structure having an effective dimension in the furnace of 900 mm depth × 600 mm height.

As shown in FIG. 3, the nitriding temperature was set to 640 ° C., and the supply amount of nitrogen gas and the supply amount of ammonia gas were adjusted as follows by the processing gas supply means.
Nitrogen gas (N ₂ ): 1 Nm ³ / Hr
Ammonia gas (NH ₃ ): 0.48 Nm ³ / Hr (= 8 Nl / min)
Here, the flow rates of nitrogen gas and ammonia gas were determined in advance. That is, in determining the conditions, the flow rate of nitrogen gas is fixed at 1 Nm ³ / Hr, and the ammonia gas concentration is adjusted so that the residual ammonia gas concentration in the furnace becomes 1.4 to 1.6% (for example, 1.5%). The flow rate was adjusted and finally determined to be 0.48 Nm ³ / Hr (= 8 Nl / min).

  When processing the test piece, first, the front chamber entrance vacuum door 3a of the front chamber 3 of the hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace 1 is opened, and the test piece is placed in the front chamber 3 with the tray placed thereon. The inlet vacuum door 3a was closed, and a vacuum nitrogen purge (vacuum exhaustion / nitrogen return pressure) was performed. That is, after operating the evacuation device to purge the air in the front chamber 3 and the heating chamber 2, nitrogen gas is introduced through a gas control device (not shown) to restore the atmospheric pressure, and the front chamber 3 and the heating chamber are heated. The inside of the chamber 2 was replaced with nitrogen gas.

Next, with the front chamber inlet vacuum door 3a closed, the front chamber outlet vacuum door 3b of the front chamber 3 and the heat insulating door 2a of the heating chamber 2 are opened, and the in-furnace transfer device 5 is operated to remove the test piece. After extruding with the tray and inserting into the heating chamber 2, the vacuum door 3 b and the heat insulating door 2 a are closed, and the radiant tube heater 10 in the heating chamber 2 is energized while flowing 1 Nm ³ / Hr of nitrogen gas into the heating chamber 2. Heating started. The supply of nitrogen gas was continued until the process was completed except for the vacuum nitrogen purge process.

  Then, after heating the heating chamber 2 to 640 degreeC of nitriding temperature, this temperature was hold | maintained for 30 minutes and the temperature of the test piece was equalized to 640 degreeC. After the soaking for 30 minutes, the heating chamber was evacuated to 30 Pa and the pressure was returned to nitrogen to prepare for the nitriding step.

Evacuation-nitrogen condensate depressurizing, a nitrogen gas ^{1 Nm} 3 / Hr into the heating chamber ^2, supplying ammonia gas 0.48Nm 3 / Hr (= 8Nl / min), and nitriding the specimen. Ammonia gas was continuously supplied for 90 minutes in the nitriding step.

  Nitrogen atmosphere was controlled by conditions based on the flow rates of nitrogen gas and ammonia gas. For confirmation, the ammonia gas concentration in the furnace was measured with an infrared ammonia analyzer. As a result of the measurement, the ammonia gas concentration in the heating chamber 2 in the nitriding step was 1.4% after 15 minutes of ammonia gas supply, 1.45% after 30 minutes, and 1.5% after 40 minutes.

  After completion of the nitriding step, the vacuum door 3b and the heat insulating door 2a are opened, and the test piece is carried out from the heating chamber 2 onto the lifting device 6 in the front chamber 3 by the in-furnace transport device 5, and then the lifting device 6 is lowered. It was quenched in oil at 65 ° C (oil cooling).

  Next, the rapidly cooled test piece was reheated at 280 ° C. for 90 minutes in an air-flow tempering furnace (not shown) having an effective dimension in the furnace of 600 mm width × 900 mm depth × 600 mm height.

When the test piece subjected to such treatment was photographed with an optical microscope, it was confirmed that two layers were formed on the surface thereof as shown in FIG. And when the composition of each layer was analyzed, it turned out that the upper side is a layer mainly containing Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and the lower side is a layer mainly containing martensite. In addition, after nitriding (before reheating), as shown in FIG. 4A, a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite was not generated on the surface.

Further, when the hardness distribution was measured with a micro Vickers hardness meter, as shown in FIG. 5, it was confirmed that the surface hardness was 930 or more in terms of micro Vickers hardness. Further, when the strain amount of the test piece was measured, it was within ± 15 μm, and it was confirmed that it was the same level as the gas nitriding treatment or gas soft nitriding treatment.
Furthermore, when the nitrogen concentration distribution of the cross section from the surface was measured about the said test piece, the result as shown in FIG. 6 was obtained. According to FIG. 6, the nitrogen concentration distribution has two stages, which corresponds to the two-layer structure of FIG.

  The results of processing under various conditions are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1 shows the treatment results when the nitriding temperature is changed. In each case, the ammonia concentration is 1.5%, the reheating temperature is 280 ° C., and the reheating time is 90 minutes. As shown in Table 1, when the nitriding temperature is 640 ° C. (Test No. 4), a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ having hardness 1023 (HV) and nitrogen martensite is formed on the surface of the object to be processed. We were able to. When the nitriding temperature was 620 ° C. (test No. 3), test no. Although the hardness was lower than 4, a surface hardness of 822 (HV) could be obtained.

Table 2 shows the treatment results when the nitriding time is changed. In each case, the ammonia concentration is 1.5%, the reheating temperature is 280 ° C., and the reheating time is 90 minutes. As shown in Table 2, when the nitriding time is 90 minutes (Test No. 3), a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ having a hardness of 1023 (HV) and nitrogen martensite is formed on the surface of the object to be processed. We were able to. When the nitriding time was 70 minutes (Test No. 2), Test No. Although the hardness was lower than 3, a surface hardness of 910 (HV) could be obtained.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace 2 Heating chamber 2a Heating chamber heat insulation door 3 Front chamber 3a Front chamber entrance vacuum door 3b Front chamber exit vacuum door 4 Oil tank 5 Conveyance device 6 Lifting device 7 Pipe heater 8 Oil stirring device 9 Heat insulation material 10 Radiant Tube heater 11 Thermocouple 12 Atmosphere stirrer

Claims (9)

A treatment method in which nitrogen is infiltrated, diffused, and solid-dissolved in an article to be treated composed of iron or iron alloy, and then the surface of the article to be treated is cured by rapid cooling and reheating,
An article to be treated is fed into a heating chamber to which ammonia gas is supplied, and the temperature of the heating chamber is set to a predetermined phase in the mixed phase region of austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) in the iron-nitrogen equilibrium diagram of the article to be treated. After the temperature is raised to nitrogen and the surface nitrogen concentration of the article to be treated is equal to the nitrogen concentration of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ , the article to be treated is rapidly cooled and reheated, whereby Fe A surface hardening method for iron or an iron alloy, characterized in that a two-layer structure of ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite is generated. 2. The nitriding is performed while the heating chamber is maintained at a mixed phase temperature of 620 ° C. to 650 ° C. of austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) in an iron-nitrogen equilibrium diagram. A method for surface hardening of iron or iron alloys. The heating chamber is maintained at a mixed phase temperature of 620 ° C. to 650 ° C. of austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) in an iron-nitrogen equilibrium diagram, and a mixed gas of ammonia gas and nitrogen gas, ammonia gas as a processing gas The surface hardening method of iron or an iron alloy according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the nitriding is performed by using a mixed gas of hydrogen and hydrogen gas, or a mixed gas of ammonia gas, nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas.   4. The surface hardening method for iron or iron alloy according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the nitrogen treatment is performed so that the surface nitrogen concentration of the article to be treated is 2.95 ± 0.35 mass%.   The method for surface hardening of iron or iron alloy according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein after the article to be treated is rapidly cooled, the article to be treated is reheated at 250 ° C to 350 ° C.   6. The method for hardening a surface of iron or an iron alloy according to claim 5, wherein the article to be treated is reheated at 250 to 350 [deg.] C. for 60 to 120 minutes.   In order to nitrify the object to be treated, a hot wall type vacuum heat treatment furnace having a vacuum-tight structure and equipped with a stirrer in the heating chamber is used. The method of hardening a surface of iron or an iron alloy according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein a processing gas is introduced into the heating chamber after being in the state of%. It is a surface hardening apparatus used for the surface hardening method of the iron or iron alloy as described in any one of Claims 1-7,
Immersion is performed so that the surface nitrogen concentration of the processed product becomes the nitrogen concentration of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ while maintaining the processed product at the mixed phase temperature of austenite and iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) in the iron-nitrogen system equilibrium diagram. Means for nitriding,
Means for rapidly cooling the nitriding object,
A surface hardening apparatus for iron or an iron alloy, comprising: means for reheating a rapidly cooled workpiece. A surface hardened structure of iron or an iron alloy having a two-layer structure of Fe ₁₆ N ₂ and nitrogen martensite on the surface.

Images