Novel Active Screen Plasma Nitriding of Aluminum Using Aluminum Cathodic Cage

The aim of this work is to improve the surface properties of aluminum, using active screen plasma nitriding (ASPN) equipped with aluminum active screen (Al-AS). The samples are treated in fixed processing conditions, except 0–50% hydrogen is admixed in nitrogen gas, for the better removal of the native oxide layer. The samples are analyzed using the micro-hardness tester, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and dry ball-on-disc wear tester. The results show that using Al-AS (particularly at 40% hydrogen), excellent film quality with better uniformity, surface hardness and wear resistance can be attained with aluminum nitride (AlN) as a leading phase. Using Al-AS, the deposition of inappropriate material (such as iron in some reports) can be avoided with improved results even in short processing time (3[Formula: see text]h).