Samples of ISO 5832-1 stainless steel were nitrided for 2h in a gas mixture of 50% vol. N2 and 50% vol. H2 at a temperature of 420 ºC. Before plasma treatment, the samples were cleaned by cathodic sputtering, in the reactor, using different parameters. The following analytical techniques were used: optical microscopy (OM) and microhardness. The results showed that the use of a cleaning step by sputtering prior to processing can promote significant changes in the results obtained by plasma nitriding. It was also found that the use of hydrogen as a sputtering agent causes no change in the results compared to a processing performed without this cleanup step.
Plasma nitriding; sputtering; stainless steel
