Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik

MM 22: SYM Physics meets Industry

MM 22.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 16:20–16:40, H16

On the Application of SIMS for the Determination of Carbon Depth Profiles — •Peter-Joachim Wilbrandt¹, Jürgen Gegner², and Reiner Kirchheim¹ — ¹Institut für Materialphysik, Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany — ²SKF GmbH, Department of Material Physics, Ernst-Sachs-Str. 5, 97424 Schweinfurt, Germany

An industrially well-established method for the optimization of edge zone properties of steel components is carbon enrichment before hardening. Due to unreliable state-of-the-art process prediction, quality control and improvement of carburizing case hardening operations is essential. Additionally, detailed information on carbon distribution in edge zones is needed to assess decarburization during steel heat treatments and for computer simulations of carbon diffusion processes.

The standard methods for carbon concentration determination, like electron microprobe, glow discharge spectroscopy or hardness measurements, are limited regarding accuracy or spatial resolution. This motivated attempts to apply secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) as microchemical analysis technique for the determination of carbon profiles in ferrous materials.

The method is applied to metallographically prepared cross sections. After a detailed description of the measuring procedure, some representative applications to heat treatment technology, failure analysis and material science are discussed. A new method for the determination of carbon diffusivities in the austenitic phase of low-alloyed steels is presented.