Different surface treatments are conducted on newly developed cold work tool steel, of commercial name DC53 (Daido Steel, Japan), to produce different surface hardness. Four kinds of sample conditions are studied in the slurry composed of water and silica carbide particles: as-received, liquid nitrocarburizing (NC), low temperature plasma nitriding (PN) and TiN coating deposition. The slurry erosion tests are performed during 5 h in a water jet device with impinged angles ranging from 15° to 90° and an impinged velocity of 17.5 m/s. In this paper, the erosion behaviors obtained on the surface treated samples are compared with those of the as-received sample. Test results indicate that increasing in the hardness shows lower weight losses. The comparable weight loss of the samples is supported by their comparable surface hardness. After one hour testing, the maximum erosion rate for the as-received condition and NC samples is at an impinged angle of around 30° while the maximum erosion rate for the PN and TiN coated samples is at impinged angles of 45° and 90°, respectively. As compared with the as-received condition, the effect of the surface treatment on the improvement of the erosion resistance of the DC 53 tool steel increases in the order NC PN TiN coating. With the test durations between one and five hours, the liquid nitrocarburizing, the low temperature plasma nitriding and the TiN coating deposition reduce the maximum erosion rate of the DC 53 tool steel by 1.6-1.3, 2.5-1.7 and 60-3.6 times, respectively.
Different surface treatments are conducted on newly developed cold work tool steel, of commercial name DC53 (Daido Steel, Japan), to produce different surface hardness. Four kinds of sample conditions are studied in the slurry composed of water and silica carbide particles: as-received, liquid nitrocarburizing (NC), low temperature plasma nitriding (PN) and TiN coating deposition. The slurry erosion tests are performed during 5 h in a water jet device with impinged angles ranging from 15° to 90° and an impinged velocity of 17.5 m/s. In this paper, the erosion behaviors obtained on the surface treated samples are compared with those of the as-received sample. Test results indicate that increasing in the hardness shows lower weight losses. The comparable weight loss of the samples is supported by their comparable surface hardness. After one hour testing, the maximum erosion rate for the as-received condition and NC samples is at an impinged angle of around 30° while the maximum erosion rate for the PN and TiN coated samples is at impinged angles of 45° and 90°, respectively. As compared with the as-received condition, the effect of the surface treatment on the improvement of the erosion resistance of the DC 53 tool steel increases in the order NC PN TiN coating. With the test durations between one and five hours, the liquid nitrocarburizing, the low temperature plasma nitriding and the TiN coating deposition reduce the maximum erosion rate of the DC 53 tool steel by 1.6-1.3, 2.5-1.7 and 60-3.6 times, respectively.