Kinetic Investigation and Wear Properties of Fe₂B Layers on AISI 12L14 Steel

In the current study, the powder-pack boriding was applied to the AISI 12L14 steel in the temperature range 1123 K to 1273 K for an exposure time between 2 and 8 hours. The produced boride layer was composed of Fe₂B with a sawtooth morphology. A diffusion model based on the integral method was applied to investigate the growth kinetics of Fe₂B layers. As a main result, the boron diffusion coefficients in Fe₂B were estimated by considering the principle of mass balance at the (Fe₂B/substrate) interface with an inclusion of boride incubation times. The value of activation energy for boron diffusion in AISI 12L14 steel was estimated as 165 kJ mol⁻¹ and compared with other values of activation energy found in the literature. An experimental validation of the present model was made by using four different boriding conditions. Furthermore, the Rockwell-C adhesion test was employed to assess the cohesion of boride layers to the base metal. The scratch and pin-on-disc tests were also carried out to analyze the effect of boriding on wear behavior of AISI 12L14 steel.