Boriding of nickel in a fluidized bed reactor

Heat treatments of alloys in fluidized bed reactors have been carried out for more than 25 years. Recently, this technology has been used for surface engineering applications in the deposition of hard and/or corrosion resistant layers. In the present paper we used FBT to deposit boride coatings on nickel metal. The coatings were examined by means of optical microscopy, X-rays diffraction and Vickers microhardness in terms of the coating’s morphology, thickness, hardness and phase formation. The coating’s tribological properties were evaluated under dry wear. The as-produced coatings are characterized by good uniformity and it was found that only Ni3B (space group Pnma) was formed during the treatment. Furthermore, the boride layer improved the tribological properties of nickel.