CAMSDM Lecture 6:

Properties of Steels II

Dr Tim Sercombe
School of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Western Australia

Room: 2.12
Phone: 6488 3124
email:: tim.sercombe@uwa.edu.au
 Recap
• Steel is an alloy of?
• Classes of steel
– Plain carbon (low, med or high C)
– Low alloy (typical high strength grade)
– High alloy (tool and stainless steels)
• Strength/hardness increases with %C
• Toughness and ductility decrease.
 0.5%C
Heat Treatment
• These are equilibrium
(slow cooled)
microstructures.
• We can alter structure
(and therefore
properties) by heat 0.95%C
treatment
• Re-heat treatment can
also “erase” prior
treatments.
 Quenching
• Heat to austenitic region
and quench rapidly
– Forms martensite
• Extremely hard, but brittle
• Not particularly useful
• Temper
Austenitise – Re-heat to 200-500oC for
up to 10h
• Small decrease in
hardness/strength
• Regain some ductility and
toughness
Quench to room temperature
Example Properties

%C
 Steel Products
• Nearly all carbon and alloy steels can be produced
either as cast products or wrought products.

• Castings: Casting is used to produce near-finish

components.

• Wrought products are produced more as semi-

processed raw materials for further fabrication
into components.
– usually produced by any or combination of rolling,
extrusion, drawing and forging.
– Common forms available are bars, tubes, sheets, coils,
wires, I-beams, angles.
– Most structural and mild steels, stainless steels are
found in these forms.

• Tool steels: usually produced by casting and forging

and are available as bars, rods and forged shapes.
 Classes of Metals
Metal Alloys

Ferrous Non-ferrous

Steels Cast irons

Carbon Low Alloy High Alloy

Tool (Mo,V,W,Cr, Grey iron

Low-C High- Ni)
strength Nodular iron
Medium-C low-alloy Stainless (Cr, Ni)
…… White iron
High-C
…… Malleable iron
 Fe-C Phase Diagram

Steels

Cast irons
 Cast Irons
• High C content ~2-4%
• Lower melting temperature than steel (~300 C lower)
o

makes them more suitable for casting

• Developed in China ~500 BC.
• Not widely used in western world until ~1700 and the
development of the steam engine
 Types of Cast Iron
• From a microstructural view point, cast irons can
regarded as steels embedded with a carbon-rich phase.

• This C-rich phase be either graphite or cementite (Fe3C).

• Graphite offers no strength nor toughness and acts like

voids in the iron.

• Cementite is very hard and brittle.

• Formation of graphite of Fe3C depends on alloying content

• Eg. Addition of 2% Si causes the Fe3C to become unstable and
graphite forms instead.
 Types of Cast Iron
Normally, a “cast iron” product is grey iron, but it is not the only type available

Grey iron: graphite White iron:

flakes embedded in cementite plates
ferrite matrix, embedded in pearlite
cutting the matrix, renders the
continuity of the metal high hardness
matrix and rendering and brittleness.
the metal high
brittleness.

Malleable iron:
graphite clusters
Nodular iron: converted from
graphite nodules in decomposing
ferrite matrix, cementite in white
significantly iron, significantly
improving toughness improving toughness
and ductility of the and ductility of the
metal metal
 Grey Cast Irons
• Fe-1.8%Si-0.5%Mn-3.4%C

• Properties
– Cheap
– excellent castability
– high damping capacity
– good metal-metal wear resistance
when lubricated
– strength much higher in compression
than in tension
– brittle in tension.
– UTS: <200MPa, ductility <1%
– Hardness: 180 HB
 Grey Irons - Application
• Grey irons are by far the most produced
among all cast irons.
• Used primarily for their low cost and
excellent castability.
• Typical applications include:
– engine cylinders, Mild steel

Stress
– pistons,
– gear box casing,
Grey iron
– transmission casing,
– machine tool bases,
– balance weight of large cranes,
– large diameter underground pipework.
• They are used always under compressive
loading conditions. They are unsuitable
for taking tensile loads or bending loads. Strain
Tensile stress-strain
behaviour of grey cast iron
 Nodular (Ductile) Irons
• Fe-1%Ni-0.4%Mn-0.06%Mg-3.4%C
• Produced by inoculating (addition of RE or Mg to
molten metal just before casting) grey iron. This
converts graphite flakes into granules or nodules
• These irons are much stronger and
tougher than grey irons, but more
expensive
• They are produced and used for
high specification applications.
 Nodular Irons - Applications
• Typical applications include:
– gears,
– Crankshafts
– pump bodies
– pressure valves
– rollers.
• Properties
– Yield Strength: 365MPa
– UTS: 500MPa,
– ductility 18%
– Hardness: 170 HB
 White Cast Irons
• Fe-0.7%Si-0.6%Mn-3.4%C
• White irons contain relatively less C and Si.
• Cementite (Fe3C) is formed instead of graphite. This makes the alloy very hard and
brittle, practically useless as structural material.

• The high hardness, however,

renders them high resistance
to abrasive wear.
 White Cast Irons - Applications
• White irons are produced mainly for two purposes:
– Intermediate product for producing malleable irons
– As abrasive wear resistant components, such as
• ball mill lining tiles,
• slurry pipe elbows,
• slurry pump bodies

• Properties
– Yield Strength: <200MPa
– Ductility 0%
– Hardness: 450 HB
 Malleable Cast Irons
• Fe-1%Si-0.55%Mn-2.5%C
• Produced by heat treating white iron at elevated
temperatures for long times.
– Such treatment decomposes cementite into ferrite and graphite.
– Consequently, these cast
irons are stronger, tougher
and much more ductile than
grey irons (comparable to
nodular irons).
– They have certain capacity
to take shock loading,
bending and tension.
 Malleable Cast Irons - Applications
• They are suitable for castings of thin thickness
• But they are expensive to produce, largely due to the
heat treatment.
• Typical applications include
– gear box, and diff casings,
– clamps
– pipe fittings
• Properties
– Yield Strength: 230MPa
– UTS: 360MPa
– Ductility: 12%
– Hardness: 130 HB
 Cast Iron Summary
• Cast Irons are a class of ferrous alloys with very high
(2-4%) carbon contents.
• Classed depending on microstructure
– Grey: Graphite flakes in ferrite matrix
•Brittle in tension, good in compression
•Cheap
– Nodular: graphite nodules instead of flakes
•Much higher strenght and ductility
– White: Fe3C forms instead of graphite
•Very hard, but brittle
•Usually only used in wear applications
– Malleable: Heat treating white CI decomposes Fe3C into graphite
•Increased strength and toughness.