No abstract

The corrosion of steels has long been the topic for materials scientists. It is established that surface treatment is an efficient way to improve the corrosion resistance of steels without changing the bulk properties and with low costs. In the present paper, different kinds of surface treatment techniques for steels are briefly reviewed. In particular, the surface modification involving nanostructure formations of steels by using a low energy high pulsed electron beam (LEHCPEB) treatment is lightened in the case of an AISI 316L stainless steel and D2 steel. The overall results demonstrate the high potential of the LEHCPEB technique for improving the corrosion performance of steels.

We report in this paper an interesting phenomenon associated with low-energy high-current pulsed electron beam (LEHCPEB) treatment: surface nanograined and textured austenite formation under the melting treatment mode. The treatment induces superfast heating and melting followed by a rapid solidification and cooling of the material surfaces. As a result, nano-structured surface layers can be achieved quite easily. Examples of nanoaustenite formation with special texture state in the modified surface layer of AISI D2 steel and NiTi alloy will show the potential for surface nanocrystallization of materials with improved properties by LEHCPEB technique.