Study of bipolar pulsed plasma electrolytic carbonitriding on nanostructure of compound layer for a gamma Ti-Al alloy

Abstract

The surface hardening of a gamma Ti-Al alloy by using bipolar pulsed nanocrystalline plasma electrolytic carbonitriding has been studied in this investigation. Coating process was performed on a triethanolaminebased electrolyte by a cooling bath. The nanostructure of the obtained compound layer was examined with the figure analysis of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) nanographs. The effects of the process variables, i.e., frequency, temperature of the electrolyte, applied voltage and treatment time, have been experimentally studied. Statistical methods were used to achieve the optimum size of the nanocrystals. Finally, the contribution percentage of the effective factors of the pulsed current was revealed, and the confirmation run showed the validity of the obtained results.