THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD OF INCREASING

STAINLESS STEEL HARDNESS AISI 316L THROUGH

HIGH TEMPERATURE GAS NITRIDING PROCESS

*Yusuf Umardhani, Agus Suprihanto

Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University
Prof. Sudharto, SH Street, Tembalang Semarang 50275, Phone. +62247460059
*E-mail: umardhani@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Stainless steel AISI 316L is one of technique materials used as biomaterial, particularly
for application of bone implant. Improvement effort of its mechanism characteristics is needed
to increase its reliability. The objective of this research is to develop high temperature gas
nitriding (HTGN) technology to increase the hardness of AISI 316L. The technique which is
used is exposing stainless steel 316L specimen in size 50mm x 100mm x 2mm in nitrogen
atmosphere at temperature T=1000oC, 1100oC, and 1200oC and t=15 minutes, 30 minutes, and
60 minutes. Along with the process, nitrogen atom can diffuse into the specimen and forms
interstitial solid solution on cell unit Fe so that it will rise its hardness. Specimens that have
been nitridated is tested to know the microhardness. The test of microhardness using micro
Vickers method aims to know the through-thickness hardness distribution of the specimen.

The results show that the higher the temperature and the longer the time ofthe resistance,
the harder the surface of the specimen. The hardness of the specimen surface increase almost
75%, from 143VHN to 249VHN at temperature 1200oC and 60 minutes. The increase of the
hardness indicates that the fretting corrosion and wear resistance develop.

Keywords: fretting corrosion, microhardness, high temperature gas nitriding stainless steel
316L
1. INTRODUCTION

An impact of economic development is the increase of motor vehicles ownership in

Indonesia. BPS data shows that the number of motor vehicles in 2008 reached 65.27 million
units. This number has increased for about 8 million unit compared to the data in 2007. Along
with the fact, the number of accidents also increased. In 2008, there was 59,164 accidents with
the number of died victim 20,188 people, serious injuries 23,440 people, and minor injuries 55,
731 people, and material loss which reached Rp131.2 billion. The number of accidents in 2008
was 20% higher than those in 2007.

One of the category of serious injuries is bone fracture. The case of bone fracture in
Indonesia is high enough, since bone fracture can be caused by both accidents and injury when
doing activity, falling, doing sport, having osteoporosis, and others. Basically, bone fracture
happens if bones get over load more than its strength. One of the medical actions to handle bone
fracture is using internal fixations. This action needs surgery to put in the component of implant
bone like screw, pen, wire, etc. After doing surgery, the patient undergoes a period of treatment
until the fracture bones are connected perfectly and organ has normal function again. The
patient who have already recovered still needs advanced surgery to take down the component
of bone implant that have been put before.

One material which is widely used for component bone implant is stainless steel 316L.
This is caused by the cheaper price of the material than another biomaterial metal like titanium,
CoCr alloy, NiTi alloy, etc. Although the price is cheap, stainless steel 316L has mechanical
strength and corrosion endurance which complete the need of the use of bone implant
component [1, 2, 3]. Therefore, bone implant component which is made from stainless steel
316L is widely used in developing countries like Indonesia. Unfortunately, based on the new
research, corrosion endurance will decrease if it is used for a long time so that it causes
sensitization case on the patient. One type of corrosion which usually happen is fretting
corrosion, which is triggered by friction. To overcome that case, it is needed to increase the
hardness of AISI 316L [4, 5].

The method to increase the hardness of AISI 316L can be done by using high
temperature gas nitriding. Generally, this process is done by exposing stainless steel in nitrogen
atmosphere in high temperature for certain times. Nitrogen gas will dissociate into nitrogen
atoms, and then diffusion will happen to the stainless steel.

2. RESEARCH METHOD
 The specimen test which is AISI 316L plates whose length, wide, and thick 50mm x
50mm x 1mm gets high temperature gas nitriding. Nitriding test equipment is schematically
shown by Picture 1. Parameter of the nitriding process is T=1050oC, 1100oC, and 1200oC, time
process 15, 30, and 60 minutes, and the pressure of nitrogen gas 0.3 atm. The next specimen
test is the test of microhardness by using micro Vickers method and loading for about 200 grf.
The test of microhardness is done to achieve the through-thickness hardness distribution of the
specimen.

Picture 1. Schema of test equipment of high temperature gas nitriding.

3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The chemical composition of the test specimen is gotten through atomic emission
spectrometry. The result is shown by table 1. The low content of carbon 0.05% and the
beginning phase of austenite indicates that AISI 316L cannot be hardened by using quenching
process. If there is the increase of hardness as the result of the nitriding process, it is because
nitrogen atoms come into AISI 316L.

Table 1. Chemical composition of 316L

The test of specimen hardness before doing nitriding process points out that the initial
hardness of AISI 316L is 143 VHN. The hardness test on the specimen is shown by Picture 2.

Picture 2. The distribution of hardness for time process 15, 30, and 60 minutes and
temperature process 1050oC, 1100oC, and 1200oC.

As can be seen from Picture 2, after getting nitriding process, the hardness of the
specimen increases. The increase of the hardness is along with the higher temperature and the
longer time process. The distribution of the hardness shows that the area which is close to the
specimen surface increase greater than the deeper part. It is obviously shown at temperature
process 1100oC and 1200oC, while for 1050oC process it does not develop significantly. This
fact can be clarified that at temperature 1050oC, the rate at which the nitrogen gas (N2)
dissociates to nitrogen (N) is not as fast as in higher temperature. Picture 1a strengthens the
explanation, which is with short processing time, 15 minutes, the increase of specimen hardness
significantly happens on the surface for temperature process 1100oC and 1200oC compared to
1050oC.

The result of the hardness distribution test also shows that the longer the process, the
higher the increase of the hardness. This can be explained that accumulation of the increase of
nitrogen amount in the specimen test especially on its surface. At first, nitrogen atoms which
diffuse is accumulated on the surface. The increase of nitrogen amount on the surface causes
the difference concentration between nitrogen atoms and those in the deeper area. This results
in diffusion process also happens on the surface to the center of the specimen. Along with the
increase of the nitrogen amount on the specimen, the hardness also increases,

To know the influence of the variety of processing time on certain temperature, the
result of the hardness test is pointed out on Picture 3. Picture 3a clearly shows that at
temperature 1050oC, the short processing time which is 15 and 30 minutes does not significantly
increase the hardness, while when it has 60 minutes time, the increase of the hardness happen
significantly particularly on its surface. This tendency also happens at temperature process
1100oC and 1200oC. Nevertheless, at temperature 1100oC and 1200oC, the increase
significantly happens compared to those before the nitriding process, both on its surface and on
the center of the specimen as shown on Picture 3b and 3c. The greatest hardness gotten from
this nitriding process is as much as 249VHN on the surface part of the specimen for temperature
1200oC and processing time 60 minutes.

Picture 3. Distribution of hardness of various processing time on the same temperature

The high increase of hardness on the surface area and the deeper area is a luck since the
material becomes more wear resistant and ductile. Another benefit is that the material is more
resistant towards fretting corrosion. Fretting corrosion is a cause of the damage of implant steel
component.

4. CONCLUSION

The process of high temperature gas nitriding can increase the hardness of AISI 316L.
The highest increase of the hardness is 75%, from 14VHN to 249VHN which is gotten at
temperature 1200oC and processing time 60 minutes on the surface of the specimen. The
increase of the hardness will also increase the wear resistance and fretting corrosion.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The writer gives thanks to Faculty of Engineering Diponegoro University for supporting
the funding of this research.