The Effect of Nodular Graphite on Hardness and Toughness in Permanent Molds Made of Ferro Casting Ductile

Abstract

The permanent mold was made of Ferro Casting Ductile as a result of sand casting. Permanent mold is mold that can be used repeatedly. This permanent mold is used to produce tensile test specimens. Tensile test specimens are made of gray cast iron. This study aims to determine and analyze the effect of spheroidal graphite on the hardness and toughness of Ferro Casting Ductile in permanent molds to make tensile test specimens. The casting process starts by making patterns using Styrofoam, making molds with green-sand sand molds, followed by pouring molten cast iron into the molds. The next process is dismantling the castings and machining to get a permanent mold according to the dimensions. Specimens for testing the chemical composition were obtained from the results of castings into spherical dies. Meanwhile, the impact, hardness, and microstructure specimens were taken from the permanent molded product. The results of the chemical composition test showed that Ferro Casting Ductile contained several main elements, namely 92.14 %Fe, 3.681 %C, 3.715 %Si, 0.182 %Mn, 0.050 %Ni, and 0.034 %Mg which affected the percentage of nodular graphite. Nodular graphite will affect the hardness of the permanent mold. Validation was carried out by testing the hardness at 3 different points 167.70 VHN, 162.77 VHN, and 155.77 VHN. Toughness was obtained from the impact test using the Charpy method, the impact values were 0.048 Joule/mm2 0.046 Joule/mm2 0.037 Joule/mm2 on 3 different specimens. From the test results, the specimen has met the FCD 400 standard.