316L Austenitic Stainless Steel Deformation Organization and Nitriding-Strengthened Layer Relationships

The organizational development of 316L austenitic stainless steel was examined in this work under various levels of compression deformation (0, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%) and thoroughly investigated at multiple scales using SEM and EBSD techniques. The 316L austenitic stainless steel was subjected to varying degrees of deformation and underwent glow ion nitriding treatment at 500 °C to examine into the impact of deformation on ion nitriding behavior. The results indicated that as the level of deformation increased, the martensite content gradually rose, the hardness progressively increased, and the depth of the nitrided layer continuously expanded. Specifically, the hardness of the material and the depth of the nitrided layer were relatively low at minimal deformation, while both the hardness and the thickness of the nitrided layer increased significantly when the deformation was raised to 30%. This suggests that pre-compression deformation treatment can substantially enhance the ion nitriding effectiveness of 316L austenitic stainless steel, thereby improving the material’s hardness on the surface and its resistance to wear. This study offers a crucial theoretical foundation and experimental data for the purpose of surface investigation.