Chair of Materials and Surface Engineering
Materials and Surface Engineering

WOT presents prediction tool for plasma nitriding processes at DGO district group meeting


At the district group meeting of the DGO Deutsche Gesellschaft für Galvano- und Oberflächentechnik (German Society for Electroplating and Surface Technology) on 9 May 2019 at the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, two presentation topics were on the agenda for the first time. One of them was the presentation of the AiF project „Prognosis tool for plasma nitriding processes for the surface treatment of tools and components“, which is funded by the DGO and is being worked on by the Chair of WOT together with the Fraunhofer IST in Braunschweig.

The DGO/BG Saxony event was very well attended with 19 participants. This was not least due to the fact that Dr Thomas Grund, Jörg Pribbenow and Pierre Landgraf from the WOT presented their research results on the applicability of artificial neural networks for predicting the results of plasma nitriding treatment. On the basis of statistically controlled real nitriding processes and their evaluation, a so-called prognosis tool was developed, which outputs expected hardness levels and hardening depths for a series of selected steels depending on the process parameters time, temperature and nitrogen content. An optimisation algorithm was also implemented that selects suitable process parameter combinations with the shortest nitriding time for specified hardening depths.

The forecasting tool can be accessed via the following link:
https://mala.txm.de/webapps/home/session.html?app=NitridingTool

The procedure for analysing and optimising complex multi-parameter processes, presented using the example of plasma nitriding, met with great interest. The discussion among the participants on the presentations by Grund, Pribbenow and Landgraf was therefore extremely exciting.

The second lecture was given by Ralf Schwab, Martin Walter Ultraschalltechnik AG, on the topic „Current technical status of ultrasonic units for use in electroplating plants“. In his presentation, he informed the audience about the main areas of application of these units in electroplating processes, about application examples for decorative and functional coatings and essential process factors. Furthermore, he made statements on the different types of oscillators and their arrangement in the bath and on plant types. Here, too, there was an intensive discussion, where it was specifically pointed out that plastics electroplating plants are increasingly showing interest in ultrasonic technology due to the requirement to be Cr(VI)-free.

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Participants of the DGO district group meeting on 9.5.2019 in rooms of the IWW (Photo: M. Regal, DGO BG Sachsen, 2019)

22.5.2019 – Projects of the Chair ( )

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