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Abstract
A series of austenitic stainless steel AISI 316 cylindrical samples with different heights and samples with the same height placed at different positions were simultaneously nitrided using the cathodic cage technique. In this technique the samples are placed on an insulate plate inside a metallic cage which shield the cathodic potential, therefore it stays under a floating potential. A systematic study of the nitriding temperature variation effects was carried out to evaluate the temperature uniformity inside the cage. The samples were characterised through optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and microhardness measurement. The results were compared with those obtained through conventional ionic nitriding, and it was verified that the samples nitrided by conventional technique present similar surface hardness, less uniformity and lower nitrided layer thickness than the samples treated under similar conditions through this new technique.