Investigation of Grey Cast Iron Microstructure Influence on its Heat Resistance

Abstract

Grey cast iron is one of the most common engineering materials used to make castings which work in thermal cycling. Under thermal cycling conditions, heat resistance is an important operational property of grey cast iron, which depends to the greatest extent on its structure – size and shape of the graphite inclusions, as well as the metal matrix composition. In this paper, the heat resistance of unalloyed grey cast iron with lamellar and compact graphite distributed in perlitic and perlitic-ferritic metal matrices was determined. The tests were carried out at temperatures of 500 – 800 °C. The results of the studies showed an insignificant difference of perlitic and perlitic-ferritic grey cast iron with lamellar graphite heat resistance. The heat resistance of perlitic ferritic grey cast iron with compact graphite is 16 – 48 % higher than the heat resistance of perlitic ferritic grey cast iron with lamellar graphite. Thus, when the shape of the graphite inclusions changed from lamellar to compact, a significant increase in the heat resistance of unalloyed grey cast iron occurred.