How heat treatments influence behaviour under abrasion wear on a spheroidal graphite cast iron obtained by adding boron

By adding boron to the liquid metal, it is possible to obtain spheroidal graphite cast iron without any need for special inoculants. The boron may be in metallic form; alternatively, borax, ferroboron, boron carbonate or borocalcium can be used. These alloys as cast present a pearlite matrix with more or less spheroidal graphite, which is usually edged in ferrite that has markings in the shape of bull's eye. With normalising, the ferrite edges are eliminated. Thus, a pearlite matrix is achieved. Annealing results in an entirely ferrite matrix; quenching and tempering produce a tempered martensite matrix.This study measures the behaviour under wear of this alloy as cast, normalised, annealed, quenched and tempered. A "pin on disk" test is employed; load and speed conditions, as well as the pin type, are kept constant. Moreover, wear is calculated through weighing, and the variation for the friction coefficient is determined in each case.