Quick Materials Science Question

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-04-02 02:55pm

Would anyone happen to know the practical difference between carburizing and nitriding steel to case harden it? Other than that fact that one way uses Carbon and the other Nitrogen of course.

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2003-04-02 03:51pm

Nitriding is not very effective with many steel alloys, though you should be fine if your steel doesn't have much aluminium (and also chromium, I think; I can't recall the details). You generally need a speciality alloy for nitriding to be effective. It also produces a harder (though thinner) case.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-04-02 06:33pm

With carburizing, steel can be hardened to a much greater depth than with nitriding, but as mentioned you don't get as much hardness. Carburizing penetrates into the steel while nitriding is more of a surface treatment than anything else. Nitriding is generally done on tool steels to increase wear resistance and help prevent seizing and galling of mill bits and other such cutting tools. The problem is it requires high temperatures which can be a problem with certain steels.