Nitriding

Professional Nitriding

ThermoFusion provides professional nitriding services for aerospace, engineering, and industrial applications throughout the Bay Area. Nitriding is a heat treatment process that hardens the outer surface of a metal by diffusing nitrogen into the surface under heat. Compared with many other heat treatment methods, nitriding uses lower processing temperatures and slower cooling, helping reduce the risk of distortion while improving surface hardness, wear resistance, fatigue performance, and corrosion resistance.

How Nitriding Works

During nitriding, components are exposed to a nitrogen-rich atmosphere at elevated temperature. Free nitrogen diffuses into the surface of the metal and forms alloy nitride precipitates in the surface layer. Elements such as aluminum, chromium, molybdenum, titanium, tungsten, and vanadium readily combine with nitrogen at high temperature, making many alloy steels well suited for nitriding. The result is a hard, wear-resistant surface while maintaining the strength and dimensional stability of the core material.

ThermoFusion Nitriding Capabilities

ThermoFusion offers nitriding services for a range of steel alloys, stainless steels, and customer-specified components. Our facility supports production quantities, prototype work, and development projects requiring repeatable surface hardening performance.

• Surface hardening through nitrogen diffusion
• Low-distortion processing
• Medium- and high-carbon steel alloy processing
• Ferritic Nitro Carburizing (FNC)
• Precipitation hardening steel processing
• Small and large production runs
• Prototype and development work
• Quality documentation available

Common Materials

• SAE 4130
• SAE 4140
• SAE 4150
• SAE 4340
• AISI 8640
• 17-4 stainless steel
• 15-5 stainless steel
• 400 series stainless steel
• Nitralloy 135®

Benefits of Nitriding

• High surface hardness
• Improved wear and scuff resistance
• Reduced coefficient of friction
• Improved fatigue life
• Enhanced anti-galling and anti-seizing properties
• Improved corrosion resistance
• Reduced risk of distortion compared with higher-temperature processes
• Excellent choice for precision components and wear-critical parts

Common Applications

Nitriding is widely used for bearings, cylinder liners, dies, feed screws, gears, orifice disks, piston rings, shafts, splines, spray nozzles, valves, tooling, and other components requiring a hard, wear-resistant surface with reliable dimensional control.

Industries Served

Our nitriding services support aerospace, defense, automotive, die fabrication, tool-making, industrial manufacturing, and precision engineering applications requiring repeatable metallurgical performance and reliable process control.

Certified Quality

With decades of thermal processing experience, ThermoFusion is committed to delivering consistent results that meet stringent customer and industry requirements. Our facility maintains ISO 9001:2015, AS9100D, and Nadcap certifications, ensuring quality, traceability, and process control throughout every project.