The Influence of Sulphur and Oxigen Additions in Mg-Treated Iron on the Cooling Curves Parameters

Abstract

The main objectiv of this experimental reserch is a comparative analysis of sulphur and oxygen effects on the cooling curves parameters at different iron melt modifying potential (residual Mg content). For the experiment, three irons with different modifying potential (0.0014, 0.0213 and 0.033 wt % residual Mg content respectively) were developed. After Ca-Ba inoculation, the three irons were additional treated by stoichiometric equivalent additions of sulphur or oxygen as FeS2 and Fe2O3 respectively. Both FeS2 and Fe2O3 sources were placed on the bottom of standard Quik-Cup moulds,usualy used for iron melt thermal analysis. The effect of sulphur and oxygen on the standard and nonconventional cooling curves parameters were evaluated to a more deep understanding of the cast iron solidification mechanism. The cooling curves parameters are strongly influenced both by the initial residual Mg level of iron melt and afterwords sulphur/oxygen additions. A very complex and sometimes confused variation of the cooling curves parameters was recorded because of different actions of the three factors (iron melt modifying potential, sulphur and oxygen). As a previous paper highlighted, sulphur addition has a strong graphite decompactizing effect while oxygen addition has mostly an inoculant effect.