Microstructural Characterization of Borided Co-Cr-Mo Alloy

This study involves the effect of boriding powder composition on the microstructure and hardness of a CoCrMo alloy borided in a solid medium using the powder pack method. To investigate the effect of boriding powder composition, two different commercial boriding agents, Ekabor-HM and Ekabor III, were thoroughly mixed with ferrosilicon powders to form the boriding media. The CoCrMo samples were tightly packed with the Ekabor-HM and Ekabor III boriding powders in stainless steel containers to minimize oxidation. The boriding process was carried out under atmospheric conditions for 9 h in an electrical resistance furnace preheated to 1223 K. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses revealed that the surfaces of the borided CoCrMo alloys consisted of a bilayer composed of CoB and Co₂B phases and also contained minor amounts of CrB, Mo₂B₅, and Mo₂B. The average thickness of the boride layer in the samples borided with Ekabor HM and Ekabor III powders was 28±4.1 μm and 21±2.3 μm, while the average hardness of the boride layer was 1752±5.3 HV_0.1 and 1364±3.8 HV_0.1, respectively.