Surface treatment by high current pulsed electron beam

Electron beams are becoming an increased subject of interest for materials processing. While continuous electron beams have already found wide applications in drilling, hardening, cutting and welding, the advantage of a pulsed electron beam has just emerged. It generates a high power density up to 108–109 W/cm2 at the target surface. Such a high energy is deposited only in a very thin layer within a short time, and causes superfast processes such as heating, melting and evaporation. A dynamic stress field induced in these processes leads to significant modification effects in the material. The combination of these processes provides the material with improved physicochemical and mechanical properties unattainable with ordinary surface treatment techniques. The present paper reports our recent research work on surface treatment by high-current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB). HCPEB is produced on system ‘Nadezhda-2’ with an energy range of 20–40 kV. A series of pure Al and mold steels were studied. Some of them were pre-coated with C, Cr, Ti or TiN powders. A strong enhanced diffusion effect was revealed: the surface elements diffuse approximately several micrometers in depth into the substrate only after several bombardments. Tribological behaviors of these samples were characterized and significant improvement in wear resistance was found. Finally, TEM analysis reveals the presence of stress waves generated by the coupling of thermal and stress fields, which constitutes the main cause of the enhanced diffusion.