Study of the duplex treatment on 32CrMoV13 low alloy steel: Application in wood machining

Abstract The aim of this study is to optimise the application of duplex treatments by modifying the nitriding conditions and using a new kind of PVD coating like ZrBN compound. The influence of gas mixture (composed of N 2 , H 2 ) and time of nitriding on the mechanical and structural properties of 32CrMoV13 low alloy steel was studied. An optimisation of a ZrBN coating was also conducted. After the characterisation of the nitrided layers and coatings (XRD, SEM, EDS, hardness profiles,…), different kind of cutting knives were treated and tested in the peeling of non-defect beech wood. It appears that the duplex treated knives (nitriding with 80% of N 2 and a ZrBN coating) performed best and allowed an increase of almost twice the tools' service life.