Ijems 21 (5) 573-579
Ijems 21 (5) 573-579
In the present investigation, we studied the influence of the composition ratio of manganese and copper on the
mechanical properties and the machining performance of a ferritic-pearlitic ductile iron. A series of Y-block specimens and
stair specimens were casted using different manganese and copper levels. The experiments indicated that manganese can
efficiently improve the strength of ductile iron, but the plasticity and machining performance decrease significantly when
the manganese content exceeds 0.9%. To obtain high strength castings at low manganese levels, the Mn-Cu alloying
treatment was also investigated here. The results indicated that with 0.6%-0.8% of Mn and 0.5%-0.8% of Cu, the tensile
strength of ductile iron can be in the range of 600-725 MPa, the elongation can remain above 5.5%, and the machining
performance is satisfactory. Furthermore, the distribution of manganese and copper in the ductile iron matrix was also
investigated.
Keywords: Mn-Cu alloying, Ductile iron, Tensile strength, Average hardness, Elongation, Machining performance
Currently, ductile iron is widely used in industrial levels. Using these specimens, the tensile strength,
production because of its favourable mechanical average hardness, percent elongation, pearlite content,
properties and economic advantages over the general microhardness distribution and surface maximum
irons and steels1. The requirements on high strength hardness difference were investigated. In addition, the
and high toughness of ductile iron are increasing, and distribution of manganese and copper in
its producing technology has been an important field ferritic-pearlitic ductile iron was analysed.
of research for several years.
The mechanical properties of ductile iron are Experimental Procedure
largely determined by its metallographic structure. An Materials
appropriate balance of ferrite and pearlite in the For decreasing the S and P levels, all of the pig iron
ductile iron matrix can produce satisfactory strength was desulphurised and dephosphorised in the cupola
and toughness2,3. In ductile iron production, the and then casted into several pieces of 5 kg ingots. The
alloying elements (Si, Mn, Cu, Cr, Sn and Sb) are primary chemical composition of the experimental
usually used to control the microstructure and to iron ingots consist of 3.75% C, 1.35% Si and 0.2%
improve the mechanical properties of the material. Mn, and the contents of S and P are lower than 0.01%
Each alloying element doesn’t works independently and 0.02%, respectively. To obtain good
and exhibits some complex interaction between them. nodularisation, the FeSiMg5RE2 alloy was used in
Hence, the appropriate balance of the amount of the the experiments as the nodulizer because of its strong
alloying elements must be carefully considered in the nodularising ability in ductile iron. The main
ductile iron production4,5. chemical composition of the FeSiMg5RE2 alloy
For further understanding the influence of the consists of 48.3% Fe, 4.5% Mg, 1.8% Re, 41.5% Si
addition of manganese and copper on the mechanical and 2.6% Ca. Meanwhile, the FeSi75 alloy was used
properties and machining performance of ductile iron, as the inoculant to prevent the carbide formation and
a series of Y-block specimens and stair specimens promote the separation of graphite during the
were casted using different manganese and copper solidification process. The main chemical
compositions of FeSi75 alloy include 23% Fe and
________________
*Corresponding author (E-mail: rao_lei@163.com) 76% Si.
574 INDIAN J. ENG. MATER. SCI., OCTOBER 2014
C 3.53~3.78
Si 2.39~3.16
Mn 0.2~1.1
P <0.02
S <0.01
Cu 0.03~1.0
Mg <0.034
Mo <0.03
Cr <0.1
Ce <0.23
Fe balance Fig. 1 – Schematic of a Y-block and a tensile test specimen (units: mm)
Fig. 2 – The relationship between the tensile strength, elongation, average hardness and pearlite content versus manganese content
(Cu%=0.05%)
RAO et al.: EFFECT OF Mn AND Cu ON PROPERTIES OF DUCTILE IRON 575
the pearlite content and led to a critical mechanical the strength and hardness. However, the grain
behaviour of ductile iron. On the one hand, high boundary segregation of manganese is a serious
strength and high hardness ductile iron can be problem under the high manganese content level
produced when the manganese content is more than situation, which leads to the formation of a large
0.9%, but the elongation is low in this range. On the amount of carbide at the grain boundaries.
other hand, if the manganese content is lower than Additionally, manganese segregation destroys the
0.8%, high elongation can be achieved, but the stability of super-cooled austenite and largely
strength and hardness of the ductile iron are not obstructs the graphite nodulising process. Hence, the
adequate. The metallographic images of ductile iron plasticity of ductile iron decreased sharply in this
containing different amounts of manganese are shown case. The experimental results indicated, for a
in Fig. 3, and the strengthening mechanisms of manganese content more than 0.9%, that the maximal
manganese are different under low and high tensile strength and average hardness achieved
manganese levels in the ductile iron. 704 MPa and 240 HV, respectively, but the
In Fig. 2(b), Fig. 3(a) and (b), the pearlite content elongation decreased less than 5.3%.
increases only from 20% to 50% when the manganese
content increases from 0.2% to 0.8%. In this case, Machining performance
ferrite is the major matrix phase in ductile iron. The As its known, a small amount of hard points in a
solution strengthening effect that the manganese casting is beneficial to its machining performance, but
element dissolve into the ferrite and become a if the density of hard points exceeds a certain limit,
strengthening phase in ferrite is the main reason to the the machining performance can seriously decrease
ductile iron strength increasing. The dissolvability of under the same machining conditions13. In this case,
Mn in the ferrite increases with the Mn content the microhardness distribution characteristic
increasing, thus, the strength of ductile iron is slightly containing 0.9% Mn and 0.05% Cu alloyed casting
increases with the Mn content increasing10,11. In this was investigated, and the microhardness radial
case, the maximal tensile strength and average distribution and the metallographic image of the
hardness were 522 MPa and 181 HV, respectively, cross-section the tensile test specimen are shown in
and the elongation can remain above 16.4% when the Fig. 4(a) and 4(b), respectively.
manganese content increases up to 0.8%. The microhardness values of fifty points from the
In Fig. 2(b), Fig. 3(c) and Fig. 3(d), the pearlite centre to the surface of the specimen are shown in
content increased sharply when the manganese Fig. 4(a). The maximum and minimum microhardness
content exceeds 0.9%. The reason for this increase is values are 547 HV and 204 HV, respectively. The
that some complex reactions occurred between Mn, microhardness values of the most points are between
Fe and C, which result in a type of alloyed cementite 200 HV and 300 HV, but there are eight points
((Fe, Mn)3C) forming in the matrix12. This type of indicated in the Fig. 4(a) for which the microhardness
alloyed cementite finally transforms into tiny pearlite values are over 300 HV. These high hardness points
particles that are distributed throughout the entire are identified as the hard points in 0.9% Mn alloyed
casting. These pearlite particles enhance significantly casting. In Fig. 4(b), some tiny carbide or MnS
Fig. 3 – The metallography images of ductile iron containing different amounts of manganese
576 INDIAN J. ENG. MATER. SCI., OCTOBER 2014
particles can be found near the hard points. These According to the results given in Figs 5 (a) and
compounds are easily created at high Mn levels, 5 (b), it is clear that the tensile strength and average
tending to form at the grain boundaries, where hardness of the ductile iron specimens increase with
manganese segregation is likely to occur. The hard increasing copper content for the same manganese
points don’t increase only the machining difficulties level. The strengthening ability of copper in ductile
and shorten the service life of a machine tool but also iron is more pronounced for ductile iron with a low
decrease the surface quality of the castings after manganese level than for ductile iron with a high
machining; thus, the hard points should be avoided in manganese level.
ductile iron microstructure. In Fig. 5(c), the influence of the copper content
on percent elongation for different manganese
Effects of manganese and copper levels is shown. It is clear that the elongation
Mechanical properties at different Mn and Cu levels decreased with increasing copper for all manganese
In the solidification process, copper can promote levels. For the 0.5% Mn alloyed ductile iron, the
pearlite formation and refine the slice distance of elongation decreased from 14.5% to 7.5% with the
pearlite in the eutectoid transformation period15,16. In copper content increasing from 0.3% to 0.45%.
addition, copper is beneficial to stabilise super-cooled However, for the 0.7% Mn alloyed, the elongation
austenite and to increase the closing rate of the decreased from 6.1% to 5.5% with the copper
austenite shell, which enables graphite to be perfectly content increasing from 0.3% to 0.9%. When the
spherical shape in ductile iron14. To investigate the manganese content reaches 0.8%, the elongation
influence of the manganese and copper content on the cannot exceed 6%, regardless of the copper content.
mechanical properties of ductile iron, a series of Furthermore, for the same manganese level, the
Y-block specimens at different manganese and copper influence of copper on the elongation is little when
contents were casted, and their resulting mechanical the copper content is above 0.6%. This result
properties are shown in Figs 5(a)-(c). indicates that the elongation is much more sensitive
Fig. 4 – (a) Microhardness distribution in the radial direction of the tensile specimen and (b) metallograph image of the cross-section
(Mn%=0.9%, Cu%=0.05
Fig. 5 – Relationship between the mechanical properties and the copper content for different manganese levels
RAO et al.: EFFECT OF Mn AND Cu ON PROPERTIES OF DUCTILE IRON 577
to the copper content for a low manganese level graphite. According to the area scanning results of
than for a high manganese level, and the degree of the two sampling regions, it is obtained that the
sensitivity decreases quickly for copper contents manganese content near the graphite (“spectrum 1”)
more than 0.6%. is 0.11%, which is far below the average
manganese content (0.69%) of casting. The
Distribution of manganese and copper manganese content far away from graphite
The distribution of each alloying element in the (“spectrum 2”) is 0.78%, which is higher than the
matrix is inhomogeneous, and the nonuniform average manganese content of casting. This
chemical composition influences largely the difference indicates that manganese is a positive
mechanical properties of ductile iron. To segregation element in ductile iron, which is
understand the strengthening mechanism of the usually distributed in the grain boundaries. A high
Mn-Cu alloying treatment, the energy dispersion manganese level in ductile iron can lead to serious
spectrum analysis (EDS) method was used to segregation at the grain boundaries, which causes
investigate the distribution of manganese and the grain boundary carburet and the creation of
copper in the matrix of ductile iron. The secondary phases along the grain boundary. Such
distribution curves of each chemical composition grain boundary precipitates are the primary cause of
by linear scanning of a 0.69% Mn alloyed casting the degradation of the plasticity of ductile iron.
are shown in Fig. 6(a). To better understand the Meanwhile, the copper content in the region of
distribution characteristics of manganese and “spectrum 1” is 0.85%, which is higher than the
copper near the graphite, two sampling regions content in the region of “spectrum 2” (Table 2). This
(“spectrum 1” and “spectrum 2” in Fig. 6(b)) that observation indicates that copper is a negative
have different distances to graphite were selected. segregation element in ductile iron, and it usually
The contents of all of the elements in the two gathers at the interface between the graphite and the
sampling regions are gien in Table 2. metal matrix. Because of the high concentration of
The linear scanning path and the distribution of copper around the graphite nodules, it is difficult for
elements along the path, shown in Fig. 6(a), elemental carbon to diffuse into the graphite region
indicate that the spectral lines of each element are through this layer. As a result, the graphite forms
nonuniform in the matrix and in the graphite region. perfectly spheroidal shapes with a uniform size
Figure 6(b) shows the spherical graphite distribution in ductile iron.
morphology and the two examined regions near the
Effects of Mn-Cu on the machining performance
Table 2 – Chemical compositions of the two sampling regions (wt%) To compare the machining performance of ductile
iron modified by the Mn-Cu alloying treatment
Sampling Fe C Si Mn Cu O Mg Ce method and by the single Mn alloying treatment
region
method, the specimens formed using these treatments
Spectrum 1 79.42 8.94 2.91 0.11 0.85 7.31 0.31 0.15 should have similar strength and hardness level.
Spectrum 2 84.06 3.71 2.64 0.78 0.64 7.77 0.23 0.17 Therefore, the ductile iron specimen (0.5% Mn,
Fig. 6 Energy spectrum analysis results and the relevant sampling regions (0.69% Mn, 0.80% Cu)
578 INDIAN J. ENG. MATER. SCI., OCTOBER 2014
0.63% Cu) has been selected to compare with the improves the inner distribution of the uniform degree
specimen (0.9% Mn, 0.3% Cu) because of their of hardness than the single manganese alloying
similar strength (632 MPa) and hardness level treatment method.
(224 HV). Figure 7 shows the microhardness Because the solidification time at different
distribution in radial direction in the cross-section of thicknesses position of casting is different, the
tensile test specimen. hardness distribution of casting is slightly
In Fig. 7, there are three points being marked out nonuniform. To investigate the thickness sensitivity
which microhardness values are over 300 HV. For all of the hardness distribution, some stair specimens
of the test points, the maximum microhardness is were casted with various manganese and copper
368 HV, which is far less than the maximum levels. The geometry of the stair specimen is shown
microhardness value (547 HV) of the 0.9% Mn in Fig. 8(a). To avoid randomness in the hardness
alloyed specimen. Although the average measurements, the Vickers hardness values of three
microhardness here is 247 HV, which is slightly points on each step were tested, and the hardness of
below the 0.9% Mn specimen (259 HV), the mean a step equals the average value of the three points.
squared error (MSE) of the microhardness values of The maximum hardness difference (MHD) equals
all of the test points equals 30.46, which is far less the largest hardness difference between the four
than the MSE value of the 0.9% Mn specimen (MSE steps. The MHD values for different manganese
= 75.28). This result indicated that Mn-Cu alloying and copper contents were statistically analysed in
treatment method not only decreases the number of the commercial software “Originlab”, as shown in
hardness points (HV>300) in the matrix, but also Fig. 8(b).
According to the results given in Fig. 8(b), the
MHD value of the castings is significantly influenced
by the manganese and copper levels. Practice always
indicates that a casting with a small MHD exhibits
better machining performance than a casting under a
large MHD situation. In Fig. 8(b), the largest MHD
value equals to 35 HV under the conditions of 0.7% ~
0.85% Mn and 0.3% ~ 0.45% Cu. The smallest MHD
value is 10.25 HV under the conditions of 0.68% ~
0.75% Mn and 0.66% ~ 0.75% Cu. Furthermore, the
results also indicate that the MHD value remains of
low levels when the copper content variation range is
from 0.55% to 0.8% or below 0.15%, and the MHD
Fig. 7 – Microhardness distribution in the radial direction of the value decreases with an increasing manganese
tensile specimen (Mn% = 0.5%, Cu% = 0.63%) content.
Fig. 8 – (a) The geometry of stair specimen and the locations of the sampling points (mm) and (b) the maximum hardness difference for
different Mn and Cu levels
RAO et al.: EFFECT OF Mn AND Cu ON PROPERTIES OF DUCTILE IRON 579