Review on Improving Wear and Corrosion Resistance of Steels via Plasma Electrolytic Saturation Technology

Plasma electrolytic saturation (PES) technique which holds the advantages of short treating time and limited heating influence and immediate quenching effect is conducted under high voltage power supply in some electrolyte has been extensively applied to enhance the surface performance of metallic materials. Steel is widely used in various fields thanks to its promising merits of easy workability, plasticity, toughness and weldability. It accounts for a large proportion in the application scope of the metal materials. Steel surfaces with good corrosion resistance, promising wear resistance and high hardness would be obtained by PES. Meanwhile, uniformed coatings can be formed without special requirements for substrate geometries using the PES. This paper first presents a brief introduction of the technological principle of PES. The status on studies and applications of PES for improving surface performance of steels has been reviewed.