Mechanism of ion nitriding of 316L austenitic steel by active screen method in a hydrogen-nitrogen atmosphere

The article presents the results of research on the ion nitriding process of the so-called difficult to nitride 316L austenitic steel. The main aim of these studies was to determine what influences the intensification of the nitriding process as a result of using an active screen. Two variants of placing the nitrided elements in the glow discharge chamber were adopted: directly on the cathode and on the cathode using an active screen. After the nitriding processes were carried out, the influence of the adopted process parameters on the depth of nitrogen diffusion into the nitrided substrate was analyzed. In the further part of the work, an ionizing nitriding mechanism with the active screen method was proposed, explaining the significant increase in the effectiveness of the nitriding process using the active screen.