Effect of carbon content on carbide morphology and mechanical properties of A.R. white cast iron with 10–12% tungsten

Abstract

Carbide morphologies of white cast iron containing 22% Cr and 10–12% tungsten with different carbon contents (2.34–3.20 wt.%) were investigated. Results indicated that for the as-cast alloys with no heat treatments, the addition of carbon changes the morphology of carbides during air-cooling in the presence of tungsten. Light microscopy analysis revealed that for an alloy with 2.3 wt% carbon, chromium carbides possess coarse gray appearance (GA). Increasing the carbon content reduced the coarse GA zones volume fraction while a finer GA zones emerged. The coexistence of coarse and fine GA phases came to an end at 2.8 wt% carbon, at which only fine GA zones spread throughout the chromium carbide phase. Scaling up the carbon content to 3.2 wt% led to the formation of tungsten carbide and austenite in a eutectic reaction. Both fine and coarse GA zones vanished while the tungsten carbides acquired fishbone-like morphology.