Boridation - Principles of the procedure and comparison with known thermalchemical procedures

Abstract

Specialists in heat treatment at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Informatics of the University of Miskolc have considered the technological development of thermochemical treatments to be their main field of research for decades. In addition to nitriding and cementation, which are widely used in industrial practice, we also have the infrastructural conditions and decades of experience of this surface treatment in the field of boridation, which is not widespread, at the Institute of Materials Structure and Material Technology. The aim of our planned series of articles is to increase the awareness of this technological possibility among Hungarian heat treatment professionals and those potentially interested in industrial use. As a first step, we would like to give a general overview of the different surface modification processes of which we focus on thermochemical processes, including boridation technology, presenting its features compared to the other two more well-known processes. In the following, we plan to present the technological processes of boridation, their characteristics and equipment, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages, the main areas of application. In a separate article we want to deal with the surface testing methods that can be used to check the effectiveness of boridation and to examine the effects of its processes and factors. Finally, we plan to present our own research results, in which we analyze the effects of the technological parameters of boridation.