Abstract
The present paper describes the research of structure, hardness and crack resistance indicators before and after plasma treatment of 65G steel of a ploughshare part. As a result of plasma treatment, we obtained the modified layer with increased hardness in the range of 980 – 3558 HV with increase in 3.6 times. Metallographic studies showed that pearlitic-ferritic structure of the original metal transforms into needle martensite with high hardness and strength due to plasma hardening. It is recommended to determine the impact toughness by the Drozdowski method, in which a fatigue crack is pre-created on a special vibrator. Also, before the fatigue crack was grown, lateral V-shaped notches of different depths were made on the sample lateral surface. The relative crack length, λ, varied from 0.27 to 0.65. According to the results of compression tests, it was found that there was a small movement of cracks in the hardened samples in the range from 1.3 to 5.6 mm. The initial unstrengthened samples are in a more brittle state than the quenched ones, and accordingly, significant fracture is observed in the conditions of artificial cracking. The evaluation of 65G steel samples for crack resistance by impact bending tests with subsequent oscillographing showed that plasma hardening inhibits crack growth by increasing impact toughness. Thus, the use of plasma hardening is effective in surface hardening of 65G steel, in particular ploughshares which are constantly exposed to mechanical stresses, friction and wear.