In this study, the case properties and diffusion kinetics of AISI D6 steel borided in Ekabor II pow der were investigated by conducting a series of experiments at temperatures of 1123, 1223 and 1323 K for 2, 4 and 8 h. The boride layer was characterized by optical microscopy, X ray diffraction technique and micro Vickers hardness tester. X ray diffraction analysis of boride layers on the surface of the steels revealed the existence of FeB, Fe 2 B, CrB and Cr 2 B compounds. Depending on the chemical composition of substrates and boriding time, the boride layer thickness on the surface of the steel ranged from 13.54 µm and 164.42 µm. The hardness of the boride compounds formed on the surface of the steels ranged from 1672 to 2118 HV 0.05 , whereas Vickers hardness values of the untreated the steels was 584 HV 0.05 . The activation energies (Q) of the borided steel were 180.359 kJ/mol. The growth kinetics of the boride layers forming on the AISI D6 steel and the thickness of boride layers were also investigated.

We have investigated the effect of the boriding process on the wear behavior of AISI D6 steel. The boride layer was characterized by light microscopy, X-ray diffraction and micro-Vickers hardness testing. The X-ray diffraction analysis of the boride layers on the surface of the steels revealed the existence of the FeB, Fe2B, CrB and Cr2B compounds. Depending on the chemical composition of the substrates, the boride-layer thickness on the surface of the AISI D6 steel was found to be 164.42 μm. The hardness of the boride compounds formed on the surface of the steels ranged from 1672 HV0.05 to 2118 HV0.05, whereas the Vickers hardness value of the untreated steels was 584 HV0.05. The wear tests were carried out using a ball-disc arrangement under dry-friction conditions at room temperature with an applied load of 10 N and a sliding speed of 0.3 m/s for a sliding distance of 1000 m. It was observed that the wear rate of the borided and unborided AISI D6 steel ranged from 1.28 × 10 -6 to 81.2 × 10 -6 mm 3 /Nm. Keywords: AISI D6, boriding, micro-hardness, friction coefficient, wear rate V {tudiji je bil preiskovan vpliv postopka boriranja na obrabo jekla AISI D6. Borirana plast je bila pregledana s svetlobno mikroskopijo, z rentgensko difrakcijo in izmerjena je bila mikrotrdota po Vickersu. Rentgenska difrakcijska analiza borirane plasti je pokazala prisotnost spojin FeB, Fe2B, CrB in Cr2B. Odvisno od kemijske sestave podlage je bila debelina borirane plasti na jeklu AISI D6 164,42 μm. Trdota boridov, nastalih na povr{ini jekla, je bila med 1672 HV0,05 do 2118 HV0,05, pri~emer je bila trdota neobdelanega jekla po Vickersu 584 HV0,05. Preizkusi obrabe so bili izvedeni na sestavu kroglica-plo{~a, pri pogojih suhega trenja pri sobni temperaturi, z uporabljeno obremenitvijo 10 N, s hitrostjo drsenja 0,3 m/s in potjo drsenja 1000 m. Ugotovljeno je, da je hitrost obrabe boriranega in neboriranega jekla AISI D6 v obmo~ju od 1,28 × 10 -6 do 81,2 × 10 -6 mm 3 /Nm.