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Pack-boriding of Sleipner steel: microstructure analysis and kinetics modeling

  • Peter Orihel

    MSc Peter Orihel is a PhD student under supervision of prof. Peter Jurči. The topic of his PhD thesis is diffusion boronizing of high-carbon high-chromium tool steels and its impact on the microstructure and mechanical properties of surface layers.

    , Jana Ptačinová

    Dr. Jana Ptačinová, born in 1989, studied Materials Science at the Slovak Technical University, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Slovakia. Now, she has been working as assistant professor at the same faculty.

    , Peter Gogola

    Dr. Peter Gogola studied Materials Science at the Slovak Technical University, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Slovakia. Since then, he has been working as a scientist at the same faculty. His specialisation is mainly X-ray diffraction analysis of metals and alloys.

    , Mourad Keddam

    Prof. Dr. Mourad Keddam, born 1965, completed his graduate and doctorate studies at National Polytechnic School (El-Harrach, Algiers, Algeria). He works in thermochemical treatments and modeling of their kinetics and metallurgical phase transformations. He has been working in the Department of Materials Sciences at the university of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene (Algiers, Algeria) since 2001. He is currently full professor at the same institution.

    and Peter Jurči

    Prof. Dr. Peter Jurči, born in 1968, inaugurated as a professor in Materials Science and Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Now, he has been working as a professor at the Slovak Technical University, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Slovakia.

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Published/Copyright: November 24, 2023
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Abstract

In this research work, we subjected the Sleipner steel to pack-boronizing within the temperature range of 1173–1323 K, lasting from 1 to 10 h. Our study involved assessing the steel’s microstructure by examining interphase morphology and measuring the layers’ thicknesses through scanning electron microscopy. To determine the phase composition of the boronized layers, we employed X-ray diffraction analysis. Furthermore, we investigated the redistribution of certain elements during the boronizing process using EDS mapping and EDS point analysis. The boride layers were found to consist of FeB and Fe2B phases. We conducted microhardness testing using the Vickers method on the diffusion zone, Fe2B, and FeB. Lastly, we utilized a diffusion model to evaluate the activation energies of boron in FeB and Fe2B, and we presented the results in terms of activation energies.


Corresponding author: Peter Jurči, Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Material Sciences and Technology in Trnava, J. Bottu 25, 917 24 Trnava, Slovakia, E-mail:

About the authors

Peter Orihel

MSc Peter Orihel is a PhD student under supervision of prof. Peter Jurči. The topic of his PhD thesis is diffusion boronizing of high-carbon high-chromium tool steels and its impact on the microstructure and mechanical properties of surface layers.

Jana Ptačinová

Dr. Jana Ptačinová, born in 1989, studied Materials Science at the Slovak Technical University, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Slovakia. Now, she has been working as assistant professor at the same faculty.

Peter Gogola

Dr. Peter Gogola studied Materials Science at the Slovak Technical University, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Slovakia. Since then, he has been working as a scientist at the same faculty. His specialisation is mainly X-ray diffraction analysis of metals and alloys.

Mourad Keddam

Prof. Dr. Mourad Keddam, born 1965, completed his graduate and doctorate studies at National Polytechnic School (El-Harrach, Algiers, Algeria). He works in thermochemical treatments and modeling of their kinetics and metallurgical phase transformations. He has been working in the Department of Materials Sciences at the university of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene (Algiers, Algeria) since 2001. He is currently full professor at the same institution.

Peter Jurči

Prof. Dr. Peter Jurči, born in 1968, inaugurated as a professor in Materials Science and Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Now, he has been working as a professor at the Slovak Technical University, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Slovakia.

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Author contributions: Peter Orihel: Realizing the experiments, writing the original manuscript. Jana Ptačinová: Microstructural analyses. Peter Gogola: X-ray diffraction. Mourad Keddam: Modelling, writing the original manuscript. Peter Jurči: Conceptualization, writing the original and revised manuscript, supervision. The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Research funding: None declared.

  5. Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

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Published Online: 2023-11-24
Published in Print: 2024-01-29

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