Wear resistance properties of stainless steel modified with co-implantation of V+C

The cathode in a metal vapor vacuum arc (MEVVA) source was modified and co-implantation of V+C was carried out with the modified cathode. The result of the experiment shows that the properties of wear resistance on the co-implanted surface layer have been improved. The surface hardness has increased by 16∼82%, and the wear resistance is 1.4∼2.2 times that of unimplanting surface. By means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), intermetallic compounds, such as FeV, Cr2VC2, Cr23C6, VC and Fe5C2, were observed. These new phases contributed to the improvement of the surface properties for implanted layer. The results were also compared with that of V+C dual implantation. It is shown that co-implantation method is more effective than dual-implantation for surface modification.