1. Definitions and principles

Nitriding, nitrocarburizing, oxynitriding, oxynitrocarburizing, sulfonitriding, sulfonitrocarburizing are all variants of the same family of treatments, which we will often refer to in the remainder of this text under the generic term nitriding. Many processes have been offered industrially under brand names, creating a certain amount of confusion when it comes to choosing the right one. An inventory of the main brand names is presented here, together with their equivalents (table 8 of [M 1 228] ). The generic designation implies the different elements involved (table