Increasing the Wear Resistance of High-Speed Steel R6M5 Using Plasma-Electrolytic Nitrocarburizing

A technology is proposed to increase the hardness and wear resistance of the surface of R6M5 high-speed tool steel using low-temperature plasma electrolytic nitrocarburizing in combination with air quenching and three-stage tempering. The structure and phase composition of the surface layers of high-speed steel before and after treatment were studied. It was shown that the formation of a high-alloy martensite structure with nitride inclusions after nitrocarburizing with quenching and the precipitation of finely dispersed carbides during subsequent tempering leads to hardening of the surface layer to 1140 HV after quenching and to 1380 HV after subsequent tempering.