Minoru Hatate

Influences of graphite shapes on wear characteristics of austempered cast iron

Abstract Dry slip–rolling contact wear test and wet slip–rolling contact fatigue test of several austempered cast irons with various graphite shapes were conducted by using a Nishihara-type wear-testing machine. The influences of the graphite shapes on the wear and fatigue characteristics of cast iron were investigated. Changing graphite shape from spheroidal to flake was found to result in a considerable increase in wear loss in both dry and wet conditions. Decrease in graphite nodularity results increase in wear loss at the initial wear stage. It is because lower graphite nodularity results in a shorter average matrix distance between graphites and also a larger stress concentration factor at graphite tips. The pitting phenomenon is easier to occur in sample with lower graphite nodularity.

Mechanical characteristics of spheroidal graphite cast irons containing Ni and Mn with mixed ferrite and bainitic ferrite microstructure

Abstract This study aims to clarify the influence of additive elements of Ni and Mn on tensile and impact properties of three kinds of spheroidal graphite cast irons (SG irons), which are as cast, annealed and austempered samples. Spheroidal graphite cast irons with Ni (0–4˙5 mass-%) and Mn (0–0˙5 mass-%) melted by a high frequency induction furnace and cast into a Y block CO2 mould with 30 mm in thickness. From the viewpoint of heat treatment, tensile strength and hardness of SG irons become larger in the order of ferritised<as cast<austempered ones. Matrix structures of SG irons, which are conducted to austempering treatment from α and γ mixture range, consists of bainitic ferrite with high toughness. Austempered SG iron with 3%Ni in 0˙1%Mn series is found to become higher tensile strength compound with elongation and toughness of 901 MPa, 17% and 915 kJ m−2.

Effects of heat treatment on the thermal expansion characteristics and mechanical properties in low expansion austenitic cast iron

Several kinds of heat-treatments were applied to a low thermal expansion austenitic flake graphite and spheroidal graphite cast irons. The effects of heat treatment on the average coefficient of li...

Notch Effects on Impact and Bending Characteristics of Spheroidal Graphite and Compacted Vermicular Graphite Cast Irons with Various Matrices

The object of this study is to find out and evaluate systematically how the basic factors such as graphite-shape, external notch and matrix-characteristic affect the impact and bending characteristics of cast irons. The Spheroidal Graphite (SG) and Compacted Vermicular graphite (CV) cast iron samples were prepared, and their matrixes were modified into ferritic, pearlitic and bainitic in order to make the various kinds of samples whose graphite-shape and matrix vary widely. From each sample we produced five kinds of Charpy-type specimens by adding five kinds of notches whose stress concentration factor (α) varied from 1.0 (un-notched) to 4.8. The Charpy impact value decreases greatly in the range of α from 1 to 2.3 but decreases slightly in the range of α larger than 2.3. No influence to the fracture energy in the range of α larger than 2.3. Increasing of α results in moderate elevation of transition temperature of Charpy impact value and the transition temperature of CV cast ion is lower than that of SG one. The impact value in brittle fracture region of the cast iron samples were recognized to be a little bit larger than that of cast steel sample, and it was considered to be caused by graphite which act as a kind of buffer effect against crack growth in brittle fracture.

Low thermal-expansion gray cast iron strengthened by crystallizing dispersed carbide particles

Low thermal-expansion gray cast iron with high strength and hardness was produced by dispersing carbide particles by means of alloying carbide-stabilizing elements such as Nb, Cr, W, V, Ti and Mo up to 5 at.%. Increasing the alloying content of each element results in increasing the area fraction of carbide and decreasing in that of the graphite fraction, and it results in remarkable increasing in hardness. Tensile strength increases remarkably with increasing in alloying content of Cr or V, but it becomes maximum at some 1 at.% in the case of W or Nb. The increasing in tensile strength and hardness was discussed from such viewpoints as increasing in area fraction of carbide and increasing in effective sectional area ratio resulted from decreasing in area fraction of graphite. The coefficient of mean linear thermal-expansion at 373K increases largely with increasing alloying contents in the case of Cr, W or Mo, but it increases only slightly in the case of Ti, V or Nb.

Accuracy Improving Methods in Estimation of Graphite Nodularity of Ductile Cast Iron by Measurement of Ultrasonic Velocity

Ductile cast iron is one of the very useful and economical engineering materials and it is of‐ ten used as the material for the members that are required good mechanical properties such as high tensile strength and high elongation. The microstructure of ductile cast iron basically consists of two kinds of basic components: the metallic matrix and many spheroidal graph‐ ite nodules dispersed among the matrix. As the bonding strength at the boundaries between the matrix and the graphite nodules is considered to be very little or nothing at all and also as the mechanical properties of the graphite nodules themselves are considered to be much less than those of the matrix, the tensile properties of ductile cast iron are considered to de‐ pend mostly upon the two kinds of conditions of the matrix. One of the conditions of the matrix is its microstructure (such as ferrite, pearlite and others), and the other one is the graphite nodularity which determines the continuity condition of the matrix. The latter is usually expressed by a kind of comparison number called “graphite nodularity” or “graph‐ ite spheroidizing ratio” which indicates how much the outer shapes of the graphite nodules are close to those of perfect spheres.

Mechanical Properties and Thermal Expansion Characteristics of Low Thermal Expansion Ductile Cast Iron with same Nickel Equivalent (NiE)

Low thermal expansion ductile cast iron is expected to become a new structural material with high dimensional stability against temperature change. We tried to develop a new low thermal expansion ductile cast iron by means of adding C and Si to Superinver alloy. In this study we prepared four kinds of ductile cast irons whose Co contents vary from 0% to 12 %, and investigated about the effects of Co content and solution-treatments on several main characteristics such as coefficient of thermal expansion and mechanical properties. The results obtained are as follows: With increase of Co content the amount of martensite increases but this martensite can be inverse-transformed to austenite totally or greatly by solution-treatment followed with water-quenching. In the case of Co content less than some 9 % the ability of relatively larger plastic deformation can be expected in inverse-transformed austenite.