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Monday 30 July 2018

What is cast iron : Properties & composition

Hello Pal,

What is cast iron? The term cast iron identifies large family of ferrous alloys like steel.Cast iron contains graphite as rich carbon phase.Cast iron can be identified as iron-carbon alloy with more than 2% carbon in composition.Properties of cast iron are high hardness,brittleness.

What is Cast Iron : Classification

Cast irons are mainly classified as Gray , White & Malleable cast iron .White and Gray cast iron names are basically from the color of fracture.
 As the knowledge on cast iron increased they are also classified according to infrastructure they exhibits like Lamellar (flake) graphite (FG), spheroidal (nodular) graphite (SG), compacted (vermicular) graphite (CG),and temper graphite (TG)  
They are also classified based on their commercial use & chemical composition as common cast iron unalloyed and special grade cast irons

Cast Iron Chemical composition:

Cast irons contain major Iron , carbon and silicon and often minor alloying elements.High carbon content contributes (>2 %) for carbon rich phases like graphite , cementite in cast irons. following elements contribute for composition in Fe.
C
Si
Mn
S
cast iron

Cast Iron Properties :

 As they are cheap cast iron are prefered choise for castings.Ductility of cast irons are really low they can not be rolled or drawn at room temperature.Cast irons are brittle with lower strength than common steel.Properties of cast iron vary over wide range depending on alloying element,casting parameters and heat treatment.

This hopefully gives idea about what is cast iron.Cast iron is wide area of study in metallurgy.For more in depth information of cast iron please click link.


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