Development and Characterization of a New Type of Ductile Iron with a Novel Multi-phase Microstructure

Over the last few years two new types of Ductile Iron (DI) have been developed based on Austempered DI (ADI), called Dual Phase ADI and Carbidic ADI (CADI), respectively. In the light of the experience acquired when studying these DI variants, the authors found motivating the possibility of obtaining a new type of multi-phase DI (MPDI), combining their main microstructural characteristics. A DI melt alloyed with 2%Cr, exhibiting free carbides and a pearlitic matrix in its as-cast condition, was used. The upper (U-CT) and lower (L-CT) critical temperatures of the Fe-C-Si equilibrium diagram region, where ferrite (alpha), austenite (gamma) and graphite (Gr) coexist (called "intercritical interval"), were determined by heat treatment and microstructural analysis on samples previously annealed. Carbides stability was studied, and its dissolution was found to be negligible. It was possible to obtain free or allotriomorphic ferrite and austenite by isothermal austenitizing at temperatures within the intercritical interval, and then transform the remaining austenite into ausferrite after an austempering step. Therefore, multi- phase microstructures composed of graphite nodules, free carbides, free ferrite and ausferrite were obtained. The possibility of obtaining MPDI directly from the as-cast structure was also analyzed, and it was found that very similar microstructures to those previously annealed can be obtained by austenitizing samples at the same temperature range. These results proved that the pearlite -> austenite transformation kinetics is rapid, as it took only one hour for the transformation to occur.