Quality control of chemical heat treatment by the fractography method

A fractographic investigation is carried out of fracture of a nitrided layer of 38KhMYuA steel and of cemented and cyanided layers of 12KhM3A steel. It is established that a fracture of the nitrided layer consists of three zones of crystalline facets: 1) a surface zone of fine crystalline facets located in a single plane and having the appearance of a white band (Σ-phase zone); 2) zone of acicular facets whose presence is due to the break-down of the carbonitride phase; 3) zone of large facets of boundary breakdown. The fractures of cemented and cyanided samples consist of multiple fine facets of multi-face shapes. It has been found that the depth and the microstructure of a diffusion layer in steel after chemothermal processing can be most rapidly and objectively evaluated by the fractographic method