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JOURNAL OF lRON AND STEEL RESEARCH, INTERNATIONAL. 2007, 14(3): 47-50

Effect of Microstructure on Impact Fatigue Resistance and

Impact Wear Resistance of Medium Cr-Si Cast Iron
LI Wei’.’
(1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, Guangdong, China;
2. Guangzhou Research Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals, Guangzhou 510650, Guangdong , China)

Abstract: A great amount of iron grinding balls in tube mills have been consumed. Under this impact abrasive wear
working condition, the failure of wear resistant alloying white irons grinding balls is mainly caused by fatigue spal-
ling. The impact wear resistawe of martensitic high chromium cast iron (Cr of 1 5 % ) is not high sometimes, but its
cost is not low. Thus, medium Cr-Si wear resistant cast iron is recommended. The influence of the iron on impact
fatigue resistance and impact wear resistance is pronounced. Ball-on-ball impact fatigue test and high stress impact
wear test of the grinding balls have been carried out. The results show that the impact fatigue resistance ( I F R ) and
impact wear resistance (IWR) of medium Cr-Si cast iron are superior to those of martensitic high chromium cast iron
(Cr of 15%). The main reasons are that (1) the stress in medium Cr-Si cast iron is released in the as-cast state; (2)
the matrix is fine pearlite with better toughness and plasticity; ( 3 ) the pearlite is more stable compared with a re-
tained austenite under repeated impact load and less phase transformation can take place; (4) high silicon content im-
proves the morphology of eutectic carbide; ( 5 ) there is no secondary carbide which results in less crack sources. All
these factors are beneficial to improvement of impact fatigue spalling resistance. The eutectic carbide M, C, is the
main constituent to resist wear.
Key words: medium Cr-Si cast iron; microstructure; impact fatigue; impact wear

T h e consumption of grinding balls and liners in
fire power stations, cement works, and metallurgy
industry, etc. may be the greatest consumption un-
der impact abrasive wear condition. In China, annu-
al consumption of balls and liners may exceed one
million tons. Martensitic high chromium cast iron
(Cr of 1 5 % ) is a widely used wear resistant materi-
alc’-51, especially for making grinding balls and lin-
ers. However, high chromium cast iron is expensive
because of high alloy content. On the other hand,
under impact wear condition, its wear resistance
sometimes is not high. The ratio of property t o price
is not good. Therefore, to find a new material that is
cheaper and has better impact wear resistance than mar-
tensitic high chromium cast iron is obviously meaning-
ful. The previous research and practice s h o ~ e d [ ~ * ~tempering.
that the failure of alloying white cast irons grinding
balls was mainly caused by fatigue spalling mecha-
nism. The minor mechanism is cutting by abrasives.
In the present study, the work will bc focused on
the IFR and IWR of medium Cr-Si cast iron in order
to provide a basis for materials selection.
1 Experiment Condition and Method
T h e present work is based on a comparison of
medium Cr-Si cast iron with high chromium cast iron
(Cr of 1 5 % ) . Their chemical composition is shown
in Table 1.
The test cast irons were melted in medium fre-
quency induction furnace. T h e wear test specimens
are taken from balls. High chromium cast iron was
cast in sand molds. The specimens were subjected to
high temperature quenching and low temperature
’ Medium Cr-Si cast iron was cast in metal
mold and stress was released.
The dimensions of impact toughness specimens

Foundation Item: Item Sponsored by Foundation of China National Nonferrous Metals Industry Corporation (96-124)
Biography: LI Wei(1963-), Male, Doctor Candidate, Professor; E-mail: Iwxasn@sohu. corn; Revised Date: May 1 8 , 2006
 - 48 Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International Vol. 14

Table 1 Chemical composition of tested cast irons %

Materials C Cr Mn Si Mo cu Ni P S
Medium Cr-Si cast iron’ 2. 2-3. 3 7.0-9. 5 0.3-1.. 0 0. 8-2. 4 0-0. 7 0-0. 7 GO.06 GO.06
Martensitic high Cr cast iron 2.85 14.51 0.41 0. 84 0. 65 0.48 0.12 0.035 0.03
Note: * Composition of a patent.

were 10 mmX 10 mmX 55 mm and taken from balls.

Weight
Impact fatigue resistance is determined on a ball-on- \ Seal cover

ball test machine (see Fig. 1). T h e balls tested were

60 mm in diameter. and every group contains 22
balls, T h e drop height was 3. 5 m and total drops for
each group of balls were 50 000 times. The ball mass
before and after test was measured by a balance with
sensitivity of 0. 1 g. T h e mass loss was then deter-
mined.
Impact wear with high stress test was done on a
ring-block tester (see Fig. 2). T h e lower specimen
( # S O mm X 20 mm) is made of martensitic chromium
alloy steel with a hardness of 51 HRC. T h e upper
specimen (10 mm X 10 mm X 30 m m ) was tested.
The abrasives used were 350 - 198 pm silica sand
and 350-74 pm copper mine ore. When wear test
was done under wet condition, the acidity of the
slurry is p H = 7 with a sand slurry concentration of
70 % (mass percent) and ore slurry concentration of
Fig. 2 High stress impact wear tester
60% (mass percent). T h e temperature of the sand
(ore) slurry was 28-30 “C. When dry and wet wear
The quantitative analyses of the microstructure
tests on sand were carried out, the nominal impact
and wear morphology were made by an image analy-
energy was 2 . 72 J and the test time period was 20
zer type OMNINET-3, X-ray diffractometer, and a
min. When wet wear test on ore was carried o u t ,
scanning electronic microscope.
the nominal impact energy was 4. 8 9 J and the test
time period was 1 5 min. T h e balance used to meas- 2 Results and Discussion
ure the mass loss of the specimens has a sensitivity
2.1 Microstructure and mechanical properties of me-
of 0.000 1 g.
dium Cr-Si cast iron
The microstructure of medium Cr-Si cast iron is
shown in Fig. 3 ( a ) and ( b ) . It can be seen that the
1 carbide particles are fine and dispersive, showing a
I
typical M7C, morphology. The matrix is fine pearli-
I
te. The lamellar spacing of the pearlite is 0. 77 pm
I
.:I
by a statistical observation under SEM. This fine
pearlite emtributes to the plasticity, toughness, and
impact fatigue resistance. This matrix is what to be
I sought by the author of present work.
I The microstructure and mechanical properties of
\
C martensitic high chromium cast iron ( C r of 15%)
I can be seen in Table 2. A quantitative analysis of the
-+ microstructure is shown in Table 3.

2.2 IFR and IWR of medium Cr-Si cast iron

Fig. 1 Ball-on-ball tester The test results of IFR and IWR of medium Cr-Si
No. 3 Effect of Microstructure on Impact Fatigue Resistance and Impact Wear Resistance * 49 ‘

Fig. 3 Microstructure of medium CrSi cast iron

Table 2 Microstructure and mechanical orowrties of tested materials

Material Microstructure Hardness ( H R C ) Impact toughness!(J * cm-Z)

Martensitic high Cr cast iron M f M7C3 + M23Cc + A ’ 60 4

Medium C r S i cast iron P+M7C3(most of carbide)+MJC 51 4
Note: * M-martensite; P-pearlite; A’-retained austenite; M7C3 -eutectic carbides MZ3CB-secondary carbide;
M3C-eutectic carbide

Table 3 Quantitative analysis of tested materials

Volume fraction of Spheroidal shape factor of
Material Retained austenite/%
eutectic carbide/ % eutectic carbide
Martensitic high Cr cast iron 19.35 5. 6 0.387
Medium Cr-Si cast iron 17. 11 1. 8 0.665

cast iron and martensitic high chromium cast iron are materials is caused by the difference in rnicrostruc-
shown in Table 4 and Table 5 respectively. ture. The main wear resistant constituent in the two
The test results of IFR and IWR show that the cast irons is hard M7CICB1. The other aspects in mi-
medium Cr-Si cast iron is better than high chromium crostructure should affect the fatigue spalling
cast iron in all above cases. process.
T h e wear morphologies of the working surface Besides the nearly same amount of eutectic car-
of the dry impact wear test specimen (Fig. 4 and bide in the two cast irons, in the high chromium cast
Fig. 5) show that the spalling pits are much less on iron there are many particles of secondary carbide.
medium Cr-Si cast iron. The IWR of medium Cr-Si T h e s e carbides serve as crack sources. So, they
cast iron is better than that of high chromium cast iron. are undesirable because they are harmful to IFR. The
The wear morphology also indicates that the wear of
both materials is mainly caused by fatigue spalling, Table 4 IFR of tested materials
and micro-cutting is a minor factor. Therefore, the Material
Spalling mass by Relative
IFR should be the main factor in the working impact fatigueig ma56 loss
Martensitic high Cr cast iron 0. 6 3. 0
process.
Medium Cr-Si cast iron 0. 2 1. 0
T h e difference in IFR and IWR of the two test

Table 5 IWR of tested materials

Dry wear test by silica sand Dry wear test by silica sand slurry Wet wear test by copper ore s l u r r y
Material
Mass loss/g Relative wear Mass loss/g Relative wear Mass loss/g Relative wear
Martensitic high Cr cast iron 0. 209 9 1.201 0. 101 8 1. 266 0.011 6 1.208
Medium C r S i cast iron 0. 174 8 1.000 0.080 4 1.000 0.009 6 I . OOD
 50 Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International Vol. 14

pearlitic matrix has higher plasticity, and more

stress can be relaxed through plastic deformation.
Therefore, the intensity of the stress and the stress-
affected zone will be smaller, and there will be less
probability of crack initiation. Because the toughness
and plasticity of pearlite are higher than those of
martensite, and the toughness and plasticity are ad-
vantageous to resist crack propagation, so the propa-
gation rate of crack is also lower in pearlitic matrix.
Because of all these factors, especially the fine pearl-
itic matrix, the iron is more resistant to impact fa-
tigue. As a result, the IFR and IWR of medium Cr-
Si cast iron are better than those of martensitic high
chromium cast iron.
Fig. 4 Impact wear morphology of medium CI-Si iron
3 Conclusions
(1) Under the present test conditions, the impact
fatigue resistance of medium Cr-Si cast iron is better
than that of martensitic high chromium cast iron (Cr
of 15%).
( 2 ) Under the present test conditions, the im-
pact wear resistance of medium Cr-Si cast iron is
a l s o better than that of martensitic high chromium
cast iron (Cr of 1 5 % ) .
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