Influence of cooling rate and antimony addition content on graphite morphology and mechanical properties of a ductile iron

Cooling rate and inoculation practice can greatly affect the graphite morphology of ductile irons. In the present research, the effects of the cooling rate and antimony addition on the graphite morphology and mechanical properties of ductile irons have been studied. Three ductile iron castings were prepared through solidification under cooling conditions S (slow), M (medium) and F (fast). The cooling rates around the equilibrium eutectic temperature (1,150 ℃) for these cooling conditions (S, M and F) were set at 0.21 ℃·min-1, 0.32 ℃·min-1 and 0.37 ℃·min-1, respectively. In addition, four ductile iron castings were prepared by adding 0.01%, 0.02%, 0.03% and 0.04% (by weight) antimony, respectively under the slow cooling condition. The results show that the nodularity index, tensile strength and hardness of the ductile iron castings without antimony addition are all improved with the increase of cooling rate, while the ductile iron casting solidified under the medium cooling rate possesses the largest number of graphite nodules. Furthermore, for the four antimony containing castings, the graphite morphology and tensile strength are also improved by the antimony additions, and the effect of antimony addition is intensified when the addition increases from 0.01% to 0.03%. Moreover, the rare earth elements (REE)/antimony ratio of 2 appears to be the most effective for fine nodular graphite formation in ductile iron.