ABSTRACT
The objective of the present study was to produce a surface with high wear resistance and high corrosion resistance on austenitic stainless steel. Nitriding is widely used for surface treatment of materials. Plasma nitriding especially has been successfully employed in the surface treatment of stainless steel to improve its wear resistance. But it is very difficult to produce a surface with high hardness while keeping high corrosion resistance and it also requires a long treatment time.
The present research uses a YAG laser of pulsed high power as a possible new method of producing S phase on the surface of stainless steel. From the result of EPMA studies we found that the depth of the nitrided layer easily reached about 100 µm with only a few seconds irradiation.
