Abstract
The paper considers the method of ion-plasma nitriding of polished rods of hydraulic cylinders. With ion nitriding, the surface hardening of parts is most pronounced. This is due to the fact that the surface layer of the part does not exceed 20 nm, that is, it is a nanostructure. In this nanostructure, nitrogen diffusion processes are significantly different from bulk ones. The size effects in the nanostructure lead to the fact that the “classical” Fick equations do not work in the layer, and the diffusion of nitrogen in this layer depends logarithmically on the properties of the steel. It was theoretically found that diffusion in a nanoplate depends both on the material of the plate through the diffusion coefficient of the bulk sample D0 and on the size factor α. In the classical case, there is no such dependence.