Resumen

In this work, cementation was carried out on AISI 1020 steel (on five discs 76 mm in diameter and 8 mm thick) at 950 °C with a holding time of 10 hours using charcoal obtained from the potato peel. It was found that using this type of biomass as a cementitious agent helps to improve steel properties such as hardness and wear resistance. In the results obtained, it became evident that potato peel carbon raises the level of carbon content in the surface of the discs, obtaining a layer depth of 1013.23 µm with an increase in hardness from 184 to 335 HV and a decrease in the average loss of mass from 0.0470 to 0.0201 g. Water quenching, 10W30 oil quenching and tempering post-treatments were performed in order to observe the microstructural change and the influence they would have on the hardness and wear resistance of the steel. It was also obtained that cementing, tempering in oil at 850 °C and tempering at 400 °C during 80 minutes gives the best conditions of wear, reducing the average loss of mass to 0.0104 g.