Effect of Simultaneous Plasma Nitriding and Aging Treatment on the Microstructure and Hardness of Maraging 300 Steel

Simultaneous nitriding and aging heat treatment of maraging 300 steel was carried out inside a DC-pulsed plasma nitriding reactor. A single heat treatment cycle was done, as the plasma nitriding and age hardening processes occur at the same ranges of temperatures and times. Samples of maraging 300 steel, in the solution annealed and solution annealed and aged conditions, were tested. Plasma nitriding and aging, carried out at 480 °C for 3 h, increased the surface hardness up to 1140 HV, producing case depths of 50 μm since ε-Fe₃N and γ′-Fe₄N nitrides were formed in the hardened surface layer. It is observed that the microstructure of the core material remains unaltered as the typical martensite plate-like microstructure of maraging steels. The core hardness of solution annealed samples increased from 331 to 597 HV after the plasma nitriding treatment proving the possibility of nitriding and aging at the same treatment cycle. The pre-aged samples did not show any overaging or martensite reversion to austenite after the simultaneous plasma nitriding and aging treatments, that could be showed by the core hardness of 620 HV and can be related to the time of total aging exposure of 6 h, including pre-aging and plasma nitriding.