Ion beam modification of materials program at Chiang Mai University

Chiang Mai University has been equipped with a 150 kV heavy ion implantation facility consisting of both non-analyzed and analyzed implanters. With this facility, a program of nitrogen ion implantation in commercial steels for surface modification is carried out. Here 90 keV 28 N + 2 ions are selectively implanted into samples of 304 stainless steel, 316 stainless steel and white steel (soft/low carbon) to fluences of 4 × 10 17 cm −2 . Some of the implanted samples are annealed at 220°C in air. Tests for hardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of the implanted steels are performed to determine improvements in the mechanical and chemical properties. The experimental results are reported and further discussed.