Abstract
The background, particularly in Europe, to the increasing importance of the environmental driver for technological change is examined and discussed. Ferritic nitrocarburising has been chosen as the vehicle for studying change in the surface engineering sector, not only because it is recognised as the most rapidly growing surface engineering technology, but also because changes over the past 25 years have been radical. Thesubstitution of molten cyanide salt bath technology by less toxic gaseous methods has required significant levels of research and technological development, but the new technology is now widely used by the manufacturing industry on a global basis. Recent work, reviewed in the paper, has shown that a move to the totally environmentally friendly plasma nitriding technology is considered to be essential in the long term.
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