Diffusion coatings on steel

In the present work, the authors carried out siliconizing, chromizing, aluminizing and chrome-aluminizing of mild steel in a pack cementation process with a view to evaluate the optimum experimental conditions to obtain satisfactory coatings which possess high resistance to oxidation. It is visualised to adopt some of the experimental conditions in later experiments where diffusion coating treatments are carried out using pastes containing the various diffusion elements. Some of the findings of the authors in siliconizing, chromizing, aluminizing and chrome-aluminizing of mild steel in pack process are reported. It was observed that there is excess grain growth during siliconizing by the pack process and the coatings are porous and lack good oxidation resistance compared to coatings in the gas phase carried out by other workers. Chromized, aluminized and chrome-aluminized samples are superior to 18/8 stainless steel and even Inconel in their oxidation resistance. Chromizing followed by aluminizing makes the coating layer less brittle as observed by the micro hardness measurements across the layer and hence chrome-aluminizing will improve the spoiling resistance of the coatings.