FNC vs nitriding — stop confusing them

How carbon in the atmosphere changes the compound layer, why FNC owns stamping and powder-metal tooling, and how to tell the two processes apart on a quote and a microsection.

8 min readLesson 6 of 12

Knowledge check

A stamping shop sends D2 blanking dies to a vendor for 'gas nitriding.' The certificate comes back with surface microhardness HV 0.05 = 1050, compound layer 14 µm, ε-phase confirmed, no γ' sublayer, porous outer zone reported. The atmosphere log shows NH₃ plus 2% CO₂. Was this nitriding or FNC, and does it matter for the application?