Scripta Materialia 46 (2002) 199–203

www.elsevier.com/locate/scriptamat

Effect of Mn negative segregation through the thickness

direction on graphitization characteristics of
strip-cast white cast iron
Jae Young Park a,*, Kyu Taek Choi b, Jerzy A. Szpunar a, Kyu Hwan Oh c,
Hyung Yong Ra c
a
Department of Mining, Metals and Materials Engineering, 3610 University Street, Montreal, QC Canada H3A 2B2
b
Department of Iron Making, POSCO, Dongchon-dong, Pohang-shi, Kyungbuk 790-360, South Korea
c
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, South Korea
Received 25 July 2001; accepted 30 October 2001

Abstract
A cast iron strip was produced using a twin roll strip caster, and the effect of Mn segregation on graphitization
through the thickness was studied. Negative segregation of Mn was observed in the as-cast strip. It results from the
negative segregation of Mn that the cementite is graphitized faster in the center layer than in the middle and surface
layers. Ó 2002 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Cast iron; Strip casting; Microstructure; Negative segregation; Graphitization

1. Introduction engineering materials, the cast irons have difficul-

Ductile cast irons have good strength and duc-
tility compared with other cast irons, such as gray
cast iron and meehanite cast iron. A typical com-
position of the ductile cast iron is about 3.5 wt.%
C, 2.5 wt.% Si, 0.4 wt.% Mn, 0.04 wt.% Mg. The
graphite is typically in nodular form, therefore,
promising mechanical properties can be expected.
Consequently, the ductile cast irons are currently
widely used as structural components instead of
gray cast iron or cast steel. Although ductile cast
irons have a wide range of properties required of
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ironjy@yahoo.ca (J.Y. Park).
ties in being manufactured as strips.
The progress in strip-casting technology makes
it possible to manufacture the ductile cast irons as
strips because the strip casting process can supply
the cast iron with the same thickness and width as
those of hot rolled strip [1]. Kusakawa made thin
strips of spheroidal graphite cast iron with 200–
500 lm in thickness using an inclined twin roll
solidification apparatus and investigated the me-
chanical properties [2]. The mechanical properties
of the thin cast iron after annealing were charac-
terized by low strength and high flexibility. Song
et al. produced cast iron strips directly from mol-
ten metal by using the unequal diameter twin roller
strip casting process and studied their corre-
sponding microstructure and tensile properties [3].

1359-6462/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 6 4 6 2 ( 0 1 ) 0 1 2 2 0 - 9
200 J.Y. Park et al. / Scripta Materialia 46 (2002) 199–203
In the present study, a cast iron strip was pro-
duced using the twin roll strip casting process and
the effect of heat treatment on microstructure and
Mn segregation through the thickness on graphi-
tization were studied.
2. Experimental procedure
White cast iron strip with 100 mm in width and
1.1 mm in thickness was manufactured using a
vertical type twin roll strip caster and a permanent
copper mold of Y type. The as-cast strip contains
3.49 wt.% C, 2.29 wt.% Si, 0.26 wt.% Mn, 0.086
wt.% P, 0.013 wt.% S, 0.004 wt.% Mg and the
balance of Fe. The as-cast strip was typical eutectic
cast iron with the carbon equivalent of 4.28.
Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing illustrating the
characteristics of the twin roll strip caster. Hole-
type nozzle was positioned in the center of a tun-
dish. Molten metal of 1450 °C, to which Fe–Si–Mg
alloy and Fe–78.5wt.%Si alloy have been added
as the nodulizer and inoculate by the plunger
method, respectively, was supplied from an in-
duction furnace to the tundish by using a tem-
perature-controlled ladle. The as-cast strip was
heat treated for the graphitization by heat cycles
shown in Fig. 2. Cycle I is the heat treatment for
the metastable eutectoid transformation with the
cooling rate of 3.33 °C/min in the cooling range
from 900 to 700 °C and cycle II is the heat treat-
Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of the operating lab-scale strip caster.
Fig. 2. Schematic presentation of graphitization heat treatment
procedure.
ment for the stable eutectoid transformation with
the cooling rate of 0.67 °C/min.
After casting and graphitization, samples were
cut from the as-cast strip along the casting direc-
tion––the longitudinal section. They were polished
and chemically etched in Nital (3 vol.% nitric acid
diluted in 97 vol.% ethanol) at room temperature.
The longitudinal section was examined by an op-
tical microscope and a scanning electron micro-
scope and EPMA.
3. Results
Fig. 3 shows the microstructure of an as-cast
strip possessing a two-phase structure of major
cementite and minor pearlite. Columnar dendrite
structure is observed at the surface and extended
into the middle layer (zone (b)). The dendrites
have a mixed structure of ledeburite and pearlite.
Equiaxed pearlite is present in the center layer
(zone (a)). A fine lamellar structure of pearlite is
detected between the cementite columnar dendrites
that dominate in the middle and the surface layers.
Fig. 4 shows the microstructure of the strip
made by the copper mold casting of Y type.
Equiaxed pearlite grains were not observed in the
center layer and columnar dendrites are present
through all thickness direction of the mold-cast
strip. Fig. 5 shows EPMA analysis map and line
profile of Mn along the thickness direction of as-
 J.Y. Park et al. / Scripta Materialia 46 (2002) 199–203
Fig. 3. Microstructures of as-cast strip through the thickness direction (longitudinal section).
Fig. 4. Microstructure of permanent copper mold cast speci-
mens.
strip-cast and mold-cast strip. As shown in Fig.
5(a), negative segregation of Mn is detected in the
center layer of the strip-cast strip, but Fig. 5(b)
shows clearly that negative segregation of Mn does
not occur in the permanent mold cast strip. Fig. 6
illustrates the various microstructures of graphi-
201
tized strips. In the strip-cast sample graphitized by
cycle I as shown in Fig. 6(a), nodular graphite
particles are observed and the matrix phase of the
center region is fully ferritic, but the middle and
surface region show the mixed structure of pearlite
and ferrite. In the case of permanent-mold-cast
strip graphitized by cycle I, the structure of pear-
lite and ferrite is mixed and nodular graphite
particles are distributed homogeneously through-
out the thickness (Fig. 6(b)). In the as-strip-cast
sample graphitized by cycle II, a homogeneous
ferritic microstructure is observed throughout the
thickness (Fig. 6(c)).
4. Discussion
When the cooling rate is above 102 K/s, the
graphite is not formed and the solidified structure
consists at first of austenite dendrites, and the in-
terdendritic areas that remain high in carbon rep-
resent a eutectic of iron carbide and austenite,
known as ledeburite. As the solid cools down, at
202 J.Y. Park et al. / Scripta Materialia 46 (2002) 199–203

Fig. 5. EPMA mapping for Mn through the thickness direction of strips.

Fig. 6. Microstructures of graphitized ductile cast irons developed by the heat treatment procedures.

the temperature of 720–750 °C, the austenite, substantially insoluble. Then carbon is incorpo-
which is c iron with large amount of carbon in rated in the form of lamellae structure of pearlite
solution, transforms to a iron, in which carbon is and iron carbides. In the surface and middle layer
 J.Y. Park et al. / Scripta Materialia 46 (2002) 199–203
of as-cast strip, the white cast iron consists of
primary dendrites of pearlite and interdendritic
areas of transformed ledeburite as shown in Fig. 3.
During strip casting, because the temperature of
the center layer is higher than that of the surface
[4], the cooling rate in the center layer is lower than
that in the surface layer. As shown in Fig. 3(a), fine
graphite particles were crystallized uniformly and
equiaxed pearlite grains were transformed from
austenite.
In the strip casting process, the microstructure
of a strip was often closely related to the casting
conditions [4,5]. The solidified layers from both
rolls meet at the solidification end point. When the
solidification end point was positioned above the
roll nip point, the roll-separating force was exces-
sive and the strip was hot rolled [4,5]. The roll-
separating force can be related with the centerline
segregation of the strip. Yamauchi et al. investi-
gated the negative segregation in the center region
of an as-cast strip [6]. Fujita et al. reported that the
negative segregation in the center region of a strip
could happen when the roll separating force was
high [7]. The negative segregation results from the
phenomenon that the rest melt, in which solutes
are concentrated, is squeezed out when two shells
encounter each other. The negative segregation of
Mn in Fig. 5(a) shows that the strip was cast in
such condition that the solidification end point
was located above the roll nip point. Park et al.
reported that the negative segregation was ob-
served in the strip-cast Si steel strip, which had
been cast in the condition that the solidification
endpoint was located above the roll nip point [5].
As shown in Fig. 5, a negative segregation of
Mn is observed in the center layer of as-cast strip,
but the negative segregation of Mn is not observed
in the permanent mold cast strip. It is known that
Mn can delay the ferrite nucleation at the graphite/
metal interface and may slow down the car-
bon diffusion into austenite [8]. In the metastable
eutectoid transformation of cycle I for the as-cast
strip, the center layer that has lower Mn content
was transformed to ferrite and graphite from
pearlite faster than the middle and surface layer.
203
The matrix phase of the center region was trans-
formed to fully ferritic structure for cycle I, but
that of the middle and surface region became the
mixed structure of pearlite and ferrite. In the case
of the microstructure of permanent mold cast strip
graphitized by cycle I, the mixed matrix of pearlite
and ferrite and nodular graphite particles are ho-
mogeneously distributed throughout the thickness
of the strip. However, in the as-strip-cast strip
graphitized by cycle II, the ferritic matrix and
nodular graphite particles are revealed homoge-
neously throughout the thickness.
5. Conclusions
A cast iron strip was produced using the twin
roll strip casting process and the graphitization
characteristics were investigated. The strip was
white cast iron of mixed structure with cementite
as the major and pearlite as the minor constitu-
ents. Columnar dendrites, which have a mixed
structure of ledeburite and pearlite, were observed
from the surface to the middle layer. Negative
segregation of Mn was observed in the center layer
of as-cast strip. In the center layer, with lower Mn
content, the cementite is graphitized faster than
in the middle and surface layer during the heat
treatment of cycle I.
References
[1] Kusakawa T. Trans ISIJ 1986;26:123.
[2] Kusakawa T, Okamura T. Proc. of SRNC-90, vol. 2. Near
Net Shape Castings, Pohang: 1990. p. 560.
[3] Song JM, Chao YW, Lui TS, Chen LH. AFS Trans
1997;105:491.
[4] Park JY, Oh KH, Ra HY. Scripta Mater 1999;40:881–5.
[5] Park JY, Oh KH, Ra HY. ISIJ Int 2000;40(2):1210–5.
[6] Yamauchi T, Nakanori T, Hasegawa M, Yabuki T, Ohnishi
N. Trans ISIJ 1987;28:23–7.
[7] Fujita Y, Sato H, Kitagawa T, Nishioka H, Tsuchida Y,
Ozeki A. ISIJ Inter 1989;29:495–502.
[8] Labrecque C, Gangne M. Canadian Metall Quart
1998;37(5):343–78.