Vanadis 6 steel was boronized at temperatures from 950°C to 1050°C for durations from 0.75–10 h. The treatments produced layers with thickness from 4 to 133 μm, depending on the processing parameters. The layers’ growth obeyed the parabolic growth law, and all the obtained boronized layers were two-phase (FeB + Fe₂B), with the presence of a small amount of chromium boride. The layer growth induces considerable redistribution of alloying elements in regions near the surface. FeB had microhardness ranging from 2100 to 2300 HV0.05, while the microhardness of Fe₂B was 1700–1900 HV0.05. The presence of boronized layers reduced the Charpy impact toughness of the steel by approximately 95%.

The presented article deals with the influence of the heat treatment of C45 steel on the surface quality after turning. Turning is a machining technology used to prepare specific geometrical characteristics of surface and dimensional quality. In the present paper, the same turning conditions were used for the turning treatment of differently heat-treated steels. The soft annealed state, normalized state, hardened state, quenched and tempered at 530 °C state and quenched and tempered at 660 °C state have been analyzed. By using this approach, it has been possible to evaluate the effects of hardening and machining on the resulting parameters after turning (roughness, cylindricity and circularity). The highest hardness was observed in the steel after the hardening process (694 ± 9 HV 10). The hardening has negatively influenced the surface quality. The high hardness was related to martensite formation and caused a damage to the cutting edge of the cut insert used, leading to a significant change in geometrical accuracy. The cylindricity change achieved 0.15 ± 0.03 mm which was significantly higher compared to the theoretical value of the diameter of the machined steel bar. An inaccuracy was also observed in diameter dimension. These inaccuracies were caused by the wear of the cutting edge of the tool used in cutting parameters setting.

The article is aimed at identifying the influence of laser texturing and subsequent coating with a hard, wear-resistant coating AlCrSiN (nACRo^®) on selected tribological properties of the analyzed tool steels for cold work, produced by conventional and powder metallurgy. The substrate from each steel was heat treated to achieve optimal properties regarding the chemical composition and the method of production of the material. Böhler K100 and K390 Microclean^® steels were used. These are highly alloyed tool steels used for various types of tools intended for cold work. The obtained results show that the coefficient of friction is increased by coating, but the wear rate is lower compared to the samples which were only textured.