The structure, phase composition, and residual stresses of diffusion boride layers formed by thermal-chemical treatment on the die steel surface
<b>Introduction</b>. Control and management of technological residual stresses (TRS) are among the most critical mechanical engineering technology tasks. Boriding can provide high physical and mechanical properties of machine parts and tools with minimal impact on the stress state in the surface layers. <b>The purpose of this work</b> is to determine the temperature modes of diffusion boriding, contributing to a favorable distribution of TRS in the surface layer of die steel 3Kh2V8F. The paper considers the results of studies on the TRS determination by the experimental method on the UDION-2 installation in diffusion layers on the studied steel surface. Boriding was carried out in containers with a powder mixture of boron carbide and sodium fluoride as an activator at a temperature of 950 °C and 1050 °C for 2 hours. The obtained samples of steels with a diffusion layer were examined using an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM); determined the layers' microhardness, elemental, and phase composition. The experiments resulted in the following findings: as the boriding temperature rose from 950 °C to 1050 °C, the diffusion layer's thickness increased from 20 to 105 μm. The low-temperature mode of thermal-chemical treatment (TCT) led to the formation of iron boride Fe<sub>2</sub>B with a maximum boron content of 6 % and a microhardness up to 1250 HV. A high-temperature mode resulted in FeB formation with a top boron content of 11 % and a microhardness up to 1880 HV. <b>Results and Discussions</b>. It is found that boriding at 950 °C led to a more favorable distribution of compression TRS in the diffusion layer. However, significant TRS fluctuations in the diffusion layer and the adjacent (transitional) zone could affect the operational properties after TCT at a given temperature. An increase in the TCT temperature led to tensile TRS's appearance in the layer's upper zone at a depth of up to 50 μm from the surface. Despite tensile stresses on the diffusion layer surface after high-temperature TCT, the distribution of TCT is smoother than low-temperature boriding.