Abstract: This paper deals with the cause of intergranular fracture occurred in the retained austenitic region in plasma carburized layer.The results show that the presence of retained austenite, which has a good effect on the impact toughness,has no relation to this embrittlement.Analy- sis by Auger electron spectroscopy shows that the impurities S and P segregate at the grain boundaries is the main reason of the intergranular embrittlement in carburized layer. However,the segregation of P and S can be removed by reheating and quenching treatment.

Key words: plasma carburizing, carburizing, embrittlement, impurity segregation