Nitriding Drive Shaft

One advantage of trying to nitride a non-nitriding steel could be the exploration into the unknown...Go west, young man!

--Horace Greeley

I was always under the impression that nitriding was to harden the surface, not make the steel 'stronger.'

I was under the assumption that most steels are able to be nitride treated to add strength to the surface and to stress relieve the part I don't know your application for your drive shaft. how much horsepower will it need to withstand for your application.We nitride all of our crankshafts and most of our blocks we add surface hardness to the cylinder walls for wear characteristic. As I see it, I don't think you should have a problem with nitriding your drive shaft.Duke

Nitriding is normally done for surface hardening of the shafts/rods and it helps in reducing wear in the sealing areas particularly in reciprocating machines. Piston rods which are generally made from EN41B, without nitriding maximum surface hardness achieved with heat treatment is only 36to 40 HRC while with Nitriding hardness achieved is of the range of 55 to 60 HRC. Thus by nitriding, core stregnth remains as of parent material while surface hardness can be enhanced.

Nitriding is a surface hardening operation. It will not add any strength to your shaft in terms of being able to handle more torque and prevent it from either snpping or twisting wrong.

The steel alloy you use will determine its torque handling capacity. Hardening the whole shaft (in depth) is another story and I don't know if this alloy needs or can be hardened in depth.

The nitriding use -is for hardening the surface,and preventing cracks on the surface of any shaft !! As so nitriding your shaft,especiallyb the Cardanne section - is a good idea

Nitriding an axle would likely keep it from torsionally loading as much, but you really don't have any wear surfaces that would benefit from it that I can see. My sense is that having a harder (i.e., more brittle) surface may lead to micro circumferential cracks that would lead to quicker ultimate failure then without the treatment.