Ecologically Safe Process for Sulfo-Aluminizing of Steel Parts

Abstract

The present technical solution refers to the field of electrophysical and electrochemical processing of parts, in particular, to the electroerosion alloying (EEA) of the surfaces of steel parts with aluminum (aluminizing) and sulfur (sulfidizing), and it can be used to treat the surfaces of heat-treated steel parts in order to increase their hardness, wear resistance, to prevent frictional seizure and improve the resistance to atmospheric corrosion. When aluminizing steel parts with the use of the method of electroerosion alloying (EEA) by aluminum electrode at discharge energy Wp = 0.52–6.8 J and productivity of 1.0–3.0 cm2 / min, before the EEA process by an aluminum electrode, to the surface of the part to be aluminized, there is applied a consistency substance containing sulfur and aluminum powder, and thereafter, not having waited for drying of the consistency substance, the process of aluminizing by the EEL method with an aluminum electrode is carried out, and the consistency substance should have the aluminum powder content of not more than 56 %. There have been carried out metallographic and durametric analyses of the features of the surface layers made of carbon steels after simultaneous aluminizing and sulfidizing them by the EEA method. It is shown that the structure of the layer consists of three portions, namely, a “white” layer, a diffusion zone and a base metal. Such qualitative surface layer parameters as thickness, “white” layer and transition zone microhardness values, and also roughness increase with increasing discharge energy. The “white” layer continuity for all the investigated discharge energies of Wp = 0.52, 2.60 and 6.80 J is 100 %.