BASIC METALLURGY GREY IRON.

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INTRODUCTION TO GREY CAST IRON
• Grey iron is the oldest (i.e. has existed longest) of the cast irons and thus
cast iron is often synonymus with grey cast iron. Unfortunately most people
know grey iron to be brittle and thus believe all cast irons to be brittle.
• Grey iron is called grey because of the colour of its fracture surface. The
carbon is present as more or less continuous flakes of graphite within a
matrix of normally mostly pearlite but it can also contain some ferrite. Grey
iron has a good fluidity and in combination with the expansion of the graphite
during solidification makes it ideal for casting of shrinkage free complex parts
like engine blocks.
• The flakes in grey iron are important for the mechanical properties. The
graphite flakes induces stress in the iron matrix and possible cracks will
rapidly propagate along the flakes. This is the cause of the very small plastic
elongation before rupture. The graphite flakes makes the iron easy to
machine, acting as lubricant.

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SOME EXAMPLES OF CASTINGS IN GREY IRON

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WHY GREY IRON?

 low raw material costs

 low production costs
 high casting yield
 good casting qualities
 low gas pick-up
 good as-cast properties
 easy machinable
 good damping quality
 good corrosion resistance
 easily alloyed
 temperature stability

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GREY IRON - FLAKE GRAPHITE

Normal Composition Range:

2.5 - 4.0 % Carbon
1.0 - 3.0 % Silicon
0.4 - 1.0 % Manganese
0.05 - 1.0 % Phosphorous
max 0.2 % Sulphur

The composition has to be selected to satisfy:

• required graphite shape and distribution
• carbide-free structure
• required matrix
* Elkem Technical Information Sheet 9
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MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

Tensile Strength: 100 - 450 MPa

Elongation: < 1%

The mechanical properties and the microstructure of grey

iron depends on:

Section size

Chemical Composition

Cooling Rate

Nucleation Potential

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SECTION SIZE

Microstructure + Properties = f Section Size

Increasing Section Size Decreasing Cooling Rate

 graphite coarsening
 increasing grain size
 pearlite coarsening
 reduced mechanical properties

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SECTION SIZE

Reduced mechanical properties as function of increased section size.

350
300
250
200
150 Tensile strength
100 Hardness

50
0
0.6 in 0.875 in 1.6 in 2.1 in
Section Size
* Typical Microstructures of Cast Metals - IBF

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 Iron-Carbon System

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GREY IRON - FLAKE GRAPHITE

Normal Composition Range:

2.5 - 4.0 % Carbon

1.0 - 3.0 % Silicon
0.4 - 1.0 % Manganese
0.05 - 1.0 % Phosphorous
max 0.2 % Sulphur

The composition has to be selected to satisfy:

• required graphite shape and distribution
• carbide-free structure
• required matrix * Elkem Technical Information Sheet 9

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 FE - C - PHASEDIAGRAM

Consists of a stable and a metastable system

Stable Metastable

Carbon as graphite Carbon as Fe3C

Eutectic point: 4.3 wt% C Eutectic point: 4.26 wt% C
Teutectic = 1153°C Teutectic = 1147°C
Teutectoid =738°C Teutectoid =723°C

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EFFECT OF CARBON IN GREY IRON

 reduces melting temperature

 improves castability
 improves machinability
 improves damping capacity
 reduces need for feeding
 increases thermal conductivity
 decreases chilling tendency
 reduces mechanical strength
 coarser graphite structure

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SILICON

 improves graphitisation
 reduces chill formation
 promotes ferrite
 promotes stable solidification
 increasing content leads to coarser pearlite

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PHOSPHOROUS

 found in all grey irons

 increases fluidity
 forms low-melting phosphide in grey iron; steadite, Fe3P
 promotes shrinkage porosity at high levels
 promotes melt penetration into mould at very low levels
 wear resistance increases with increasing P-content

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CARBON EQUIVALENT

Carbon equivalent formula:

%Si % P
C.E  %C  
3 3

Valid for unalloyed grey and ductile irons

hypo-eutectic < C.E = 4.26 < hyper-eutectic

Grey iron: Ductile iron:

%C = 3.0, %Si = 1.9, %P %C = 3.7, %Si = 2.5, %P

= 0.05 = 0.02

C.E. = 3.6 C.E. = 4.5

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EFFECT OF CARBON EQUIVALENT IN GREY IRON

Strength of grey iron will, in

general, decrease with increasing
carbon equivalent. While amount
of graphite in the structure
increases.

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MANGANESE

 ties up S and O
 reduces chill formation
 promotes austenite
 strong pearlite promoter
 weak carbide promoter

To tie up S: %Mn = 1.7[%S] + 0.3

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MANGANESE

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SULPHUR

 found in all grey irons

 pearlite promoter
 forms low-melting sulphide in grey iron, FeS
 balanced out by Mn to MnS, which acts as
nucleation points
 promotes smaller eutectic cells
 hardness increase with increasing S-level

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UTS VS SULPHUR CONTENT

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SULPHUR

High chilling tendency High chilling tendency

Large Grains Fine Grains
D-graphite D-graphite

wt% S

Low chilling tendency

Medium Size Grains
A-graphite

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EFFECT OF MANGANESE AND SULPHUR
Equilibrium reaction MnS: Mn + S ↔ MnS
Equilibrium reaction FeS: Fe + S ↔ FeS

Stoichiometric balance: [%Mn] = 1.7[%S]

To ensure only MnS: [%Mn] = 1.7[%S] + 0.30%

To achieve maximum strength precipitation of MnS has to suppressed to as

low temperature as possible prior to onset of solidification.
Too early MnS precipitation = 40 – 80MPa lower strength

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MANGANESE & SULPHUR AS FUNCTION OF CE

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TYPE OF GRAPHITE FLAKES

C.E
C
Superimposed Flake Size
Random orientated

A
Inoculated Irons C.E = 4.26
Uniform distributed B
Random orientated Rosette Grouping
Random orientated D
Interdendritic Segregation
Random orientated

E
Interdendritic Segregation
Preferred orientated

Undercooling, T
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FLAKE GRAPHITE STRUCTURES

Type A (random flake) Type B (rosette flake)

Type C (kish graphite) Type D (undercooled) Type E (interdendritic)

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GREY IRON SOLIDIFICATION

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FLAKE GRAPHITE SIZE

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EFFECT OF DIFFERENT ELEMENTS ON TENSILE STRENGTH

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CHILL DEPTH IN GREY IRON

The figure shows the relative

chilling power of different
elements

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EFFECT OF VANADIUM

• Promotes formation of eutectic iron carbide which can be removed by

heat treatment
• Inoculation can help reduce formation of eutectic carbides
• Low chilling tendency in high carbon irons and in combination with Cu
• Increases nucleation in grey iron giving finer and more uniform
graphite structures
• Segregates with P giving hard particles with good sliding wear
resistance
• Increases strength especially in high carbon grey iron
• More effective than Cr and Mo

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FACTORS AFFECTING MACHINABILITY

• Carbon content
• Eutectic cell count
• Volume of MnS particles
• Mn level
• Sn level

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CONTROL OF PROPERTIES IN GREY IRON

Rm Empirical Formula Applies to 30mm Test Bar

Rm  (1000  800SC  25)MPa

Rm  k * E0 * HB *106

SC

Fracture and cracks are initiated by the flake graphite.

Size and Distribution of the graphite in Grey Iron are thus the most
important tool to control the mechanical properties.

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CALCULATED UTS – DEVELOPED BY BATES ET.AL.

UTS = Factor A * Factor B

Factor A: 101.1193*(%TC + %Si/4 + %P/2)+ 4.3887/cast bar radius

Factor B: 1.00 + 0.1371Si – 0.0021(Mn-1.7S) – 0.3131S + 0.3562Cr +
0.0282Ni + 0.1107Cu + 0.6297Mo – 5.2985Ti – 0.2350Sn
The coefficients are developed from regression analysis.

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REFERENCES
• Nucleation of graphite in cast iron melts depending on manganese, sulphur and oxygen. – A.Sommerfeld, B.Tonn
International journal of Cats Metals Research 2008 vol 21 no 1-4
• Tin-alloyed Grey Iron Cylinder Blocks – A.J.Tache, R.M. Cage American Society of Automotive Engineers 14.
January 1964
• Eutectic cell and nodule count in cast irons – E.Fras, M.Gorny, W.Kapturkiewicz, H.Lopez International journal of
Cast Metals Research 2007 vol 20 no 5
• The effect of graphite aspect ratio on the mechanical and microstructural properties of cast irons – R.I.El Souedy
Mat.-wiss. u Werkstofftech. 33 73 -79 (2002)
• High strength cast irons containing vanadium annealed ductile irons and high carbon grey irons – J.V.Dawson,
Dr.A.M.Sage The Foundryman October 1989
• Machinability of class 40 grey iron – H.Li, R.D.Griffin, C.E.Bates AFS Transactions 2002-151
• Machinability of gray iron – R.D.Griffin, HJ.Li, E.Eleftheriou, C.E.Bates AFS Transaction 2002-159
• An analysis of the influence of chemical composition on the mechanical and metallurgical properties of engine
cylinder blocks in grey iron. – L.Alvarez, CJ.Luis, I.Puertas Journal of materials processing technology 153-154
(2004) 1039 -1044
• Comparison of mechanical properties in flake graphite and compacted graphite cast irons for piston rings. T.Sjøgren,
P.Vomacka, I.L.Svensson International Journal of Cast Metals Research 2004 vol.17 no.2

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