Effects of austempering temperature on microstructure and surface residual stress of carbidic austempered ductile iron (CADI) grinding balls

Abstract

The effects of austempering temperature on microstructure and surface residual stress of carbidic austempered ductile iron (CADI) grinding balls were systematically investigated in this work. The microstructures were oberserved by optical metallography and analyized by X-ray diffraction. The surface residual stress measured by the cutting method is mainly composed of thermal stress and phase transformation stress. The thermal stress in grinding balls was determined by ANSYS simulation technique, and the surface phase transformation stress was obtained by subtracting the simulated surface thermal stress from the measured surface residual stress. Results show that all microstructures consist of ausferrite, white-bright zones (mixture of martensite and austenite), nodular graphite, and carbides. The distribution of ausferrite shows uniform. With the increase of austempering temperature, the volume fraction and carbon content of austenite increase, whereas the amount of white-bright zone decreases. In addition, the surface residual stress increases with the increase of austempering temperature. Only the tension exists at the austempering temperature of 200 °C, and the pressure exists at the austempering temperature of 220–260 °C. The thermal stress changes from the tension on the inside with the radius of 0–35 mm to the pressure on the outside with the radius of 35–62.5 mm, and the stress balance state presents at the radius of 35 mm. It is also found that the transformation stress is related to the content of carbon-rich austenite, and will reduce by 5.03 MPa accompanied with 1vol.% increase of the austenite. The thermal compressive stress and the transformation tensile stress on the surface both decrease with the increase of the austempering temperature.