Materials and Design 24 (2003) 63–68

Ecodesign for wear resistant ductile cast iron with medium manganese
content夞
Xu Jincheng*
Department of Materials Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

Received 31 May 2002; received in revised form 5 August 2002; accepted 6 September 2002

Abstract

Based on the reuse and recycling of manganese resource from disposed high manganese steel scraps, the wear resistant ductile
cast iron of low carbon and medium manganese content was designed for grinding balls. High manganese steel scraps were used
as the main charge in the melting process to replace a large fraction of pig iron, and the ferromanganese alloy was saved. The
processing technology, the wear properties and the environmental impacts of the new material were studied by comparing with
the traditional material KmTQMn6. The results of the experiments show that the new material has better abrasive wear resistance
and lower environmental impacts. Therefore, it can be developed to a type of environmentally conscious wear resistant cast iron.
䊚 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Wear; Ecodesign; Abrasion

tribological performance and the environmental impacts

1. Introduction
The life style of the modern society of mass produc-
tion, consumption and disposal causes gradual exhaus-
tion and dilution of the natural resources and gradually
destroys the environment, which human beings depend
on. Recycling and reuse of resources become an urgent
technical problem which human society must deal with
for sustainable development of the economy. Especially,
the recycling of exhausted metal resources has become
the key subject for development of the environmentally
conscious materials or products, which leads a new
research field named ecodesign (shorten from environ-
mentally conscious design) w1x. Meanwhile, the green
tribology appears in the research field of the tribology,
which stands for the consideration of sustainable devel-
opment of the industries linking with relative materials
w2x. Based on these ideas, the author developed a type
of wear resistant ductile cast iron (DCI) and studied the
夞 State Natural Science Foundation Program (program no.
50274040) of China.
*Tel.: q43-1-47654-4401; fax: q43-1-47654-4407.
E-mail address: xuhuan@lzu.edu.cn (X. Jincheng).
of the material.
Ball-grinding mills are the main crushing equipments
intensively used in mining, construction and power
industries. Every year plenty of high manganese steel
liners are worn out and transported to steel making
plants as steel scraps. Generally, in steel making pro-
cesses only iron is recycled, and plenty of manganese
is oxidized into slag and lost. On the other hand, ball-
grinding mills also consume great amounts of grinding
balls each year. For medium and small size mills, wear
resistant DCI with medium manganese content (Km-
TQMn6) is often used to produce grinding balls. In the
processing of these balls, the medium manganese content
of them is met by the addition of ferromanganese alloys
during heating. This situation reveals the unreasonable
use of manganese resource in this case. On the one
hand, plenty of manganese is wasted when worn high
manganese liners are disposed or transported to steel
processing as scraps, on the other hand in the processing
of grinding balls plenty of manganese resource, direct
from Earth, is consumed. Therefore, direct use of waste
high manganese scrap, as the main charge to produce
grinding balls is significant for conservation of
resources. Of course there are some technical problems

0261-3069/03/$ - see front matter 䊚 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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64 X. Jincheng / Materials and Design 24 (2003) 63–68

Table 1
The composition of raw materials (%)

Raw material C Si Mn P S
Pig iron 4.1–4.3 2.25–2.75 0.51–0.52 -0.05 -0.04
High manganese steel scrap 0.9–1.4 0.3–1.0 11.5–15.0 -0.12 -0.05

Table 2
The composition of tested materials

Sample Material Composition (%)

series
C Si Mn P S Mg RE
100 Low carbon DCI 2.4 3.4 6.2 -0.15 -0.02 0.06 0.05
200 Low carbon DCI 2.4 5.5 6.3 -0.15 -0.02 0.05 0.05
300 KmTQMn6 3.4 3.3 6.3 -0.15 -0.02 0.05 0.05

Table 3
Proportion of raw materials in charges (%)

Sample Material Pig iron High Returns Mn5 Si75

series manganese (cast iron (68% Mn) (75% Si)
steel scraps waste)
100 Low carbon DCI 25 50 25 0 0
200 Low carbon DCI 25 50 25 0 3% of charge
300 KmTQMn6 50 0 50 5% of charge 0

also. The widely used wear resistant cast iron for
grinding balls of medium and small size in China is
KmTQMn6, which has high carbon content (3.3–3.8%
C). If melt heats according to this composition, the
proportion of high manganese steel scrap cannot exceed
20% of the charge. In this situation, the manganese
content of the ball is much less than is needed for the
material. Ferromanganese alloys have to be added to
meet the composition. If the manganese content is totally
met by the addition of high manganese steel scraps, its
proportion has to be raised to 40–50% of the total
charge, this will cause the rapid drop of carbon content
in the material. Can the material with lower carbon
content reach the same application performance of
KmTQMn6? It must be verified first.
1360–1380 8C. Each sample was cut and grinded to
two pieces: one has size a of 57=25.6=6 mm3 for
wear tests, the other has a size of 25=12=6 mm3 for
metallographic examination.
The abrasive wear test was carried out on a model
MLS-23 wet sand rubber wheel wear tester. The abra-
sives were quartz sand of 40–70 mesh. The hardness of
the sand is HRC55. The ratio of sand to water is 2:3 in
the sand slurry. The speed of the rubber wheel is 240
rpm. The load applied is 2.5 kg and the testing period
is 2000 turns. The wear loss of the weight was weighed
by an analytical balance with an accuracy of 0.0001 g.
The hardness of the wear samples was measured on a
HR-150D hardness tester. Each sample was measuremed
three times to get the average hardness.

2. Experimental method Table 4

Wear test results
The wear resistant DCI with medium manganese Sample Composition Solidification HRC Test results
content was melted in a high frequency induction fur- number (%) conditions
nace of 10 kg capacity. The composition of the raw
C Si Mn Wear loss (g) ´
materials is shown in Table 1. The composition and the
make-up of the charges are shown in Tables 2 and 3. 101 2.4 3.4 6.2 Metal mould 60.8 0.1820 5.08
The returns in the charge are pouring systems (gates, 102 2.4 3.4 6.2 Green sand 58.1 0.2376 3.73
103 2.4 3.4 6.2 Dry sand 55.1 0.2681 3.45
risers) and waste products that have the same composi- 201 2.4 5.5 6.3 Metal mould 51.3 0.8380 1.10
tion as the heats. The modifiers of the heats used Rare 202 2.4 5.5 6.3 Green sand 51.1 0.9063 1.02
earth—magnesium ferrosilicon alloy (7% Mg and 7% 203 2.4 5.5 6.3 Dry sand 48.9 1.0266 0.90
RE) and ferrosilicon (75% Si) as the inoculators. The 301 3.4 3.3 6.3 Metal mould 48.8 0.9242 1.00
heats were poured into metal molds, green sand and dry 302 3.4 3.3 6.3 Green sand 39.3 1.0885 0.85
303 3.4 3.3 6.3 Dry sand 39.2 1.1095 0.83
sand molds, respectively. The pouring temperature was
 X. Jincheng / Materials and Design 24 (2003) 63–68
Fig. 1. Comparative wear resistance vs. hardness of the materials.
3. Experimental results and discussion
Table 4 shows the testing results. Different numbers
refer to different compositions and solidification condi-
tions. The hardness values and wear data are also shown
in the table. In wear tests the sample of KmTQMn6 cast
in the metal mold (sample 301) was taken as the
reference. The comparative wear resistance of each
sample was calculated by the following formula w3x:
WLS
´s
WL
where ´ stands for the comparative wear resistance of
each sample, WLS is the wear loss of the reference
sample in weight, WL is the wear loss of each sample
in weight.
The microstructures of the samples are shown in Figs.
2 and 3. Its feature is summarized in Table 5. Among
these samples, the composition, as-cast microstructure
and the hardness of sample 301 well meet the criterion
specified by the national standard GB5612-85. There-
fore, this sample was taken as the reference in the wear
testing. From test results we can deduce the relationship
between the comparative wear resistance, the wear loss
weight and the hardness of the materials (Fig. 1). It
shows that the wear resistance rapidly increases when
the hardness of the materials exceeds 49 HRC. That
means when Hm yHa)49y55f0.9, the comparative wear
resistance of the material rapidly increases as the hard-
ness increases. Here, Hm is the hardness of the material,
Ha is the hardness of the abrasive. This result agrees
65
with the results given in references w4,5x. From Table 4
it is also seen that the samples, which have the compo-
sition of 2.4% C and 3.4% Si (sample 101–103), have
much higher hardness and wear resistance. However,
the material is more brittle because of a large proportion
of carbides in the matrices, especially the samples cast
in green sand mold and metal mold (sample 101–102).
It is not considered to be suitable for grinding balls.
The national standard GB5612-85 specified that the
carbide amount should be in the range of 5–25%, the
corresponding hardness should be in the range of
HRC48–56 for wear resistant DCI with medium man-
ganese content. In this group of samples, only sample
103, cast in dry sand mold, meets the criterion both in
carbide amount and the hardness value.
It was reported that when the carbon content was
limited for some reason, silicon content could be raised
to adjust carbide fraction w6x. In order to reduce the
brittleness of the cast iron, silicon content increased
from 3.4 to 5.5%, thus the second group samples 201–
203 were obtained. The test results showed that the
microstructures, the carbide amounts or the hardness of
the samples all met the criterion, either cast in metal
mold or in sand molds. The wear tests even showed its
wear resistance is a little higher than that of samples of
KmTQMn6. Therefore, it can replace the traditional
material KmTQMn6 to cast the grinding balls. Since
this material has lower carbon content, the high man-
ganese steel scraps can take a large proportion in the
charge in the cast iron melting processes. The manganese
resource in the scraps can be fully recovered and
66 X. Jincheng / Materials and Design 24 (2003) 63–68

Fig. 2. The microstructure of low carbon wear resistant DCI in different mould.

recycled. The melting process does not consume ferro-
manganese alloys, and the process uses less amounts of
pig iron. Comparing with the common process of
KmTQMn6, this new process can save ferromanganese
alloy Mn5 (68% Mn) 80 kg and pig iron 400 kg for
per ton grinding ball.
Apart from the good wear resistance and the feature
of saving resources, the process of grinding balls cast
by this material is also easy to control during production.
The balls made with the traditional material KmTQMn6
can meet the criterion of the microstructure and hardness
only when it is cast in the metal molds. In the cooling
conditions of dry sand molds, large amounts of troostite
appears in the matrices (Fig. 3), which causes the rapid
decrease of the wear resistance. However, the balls cast

Table 5
Microstructure of wear resistant DCI

Sample Microstructure Carbides (%)

number (of matrices)
101 Needle Mqgresqcarbides 40–50
102 Needle Mqgresqcarbides 30–40
103 Needle Mqgresqcarbides 20–25
201 Needle Mqgresqcarbides 5–10
202 Needle Mqgresqcarbides 5–10
203 Needle Mqgresqcarbides 5
301 Needle Mqgresqcarbides 15–20
302 Needle MqTqcarbides 10–15
303 Needle MqTqcarbides 5–10
Fig. 3. The microstructure of ductile iron with medium manganese Note: Needle M—needlelike martensite; gres—retained austenite;
content cast in dry sand mould, note that some troostite appears. T—troostite.
 X. Jincheng / Materials and Design 24 (2003) 63–68 67

Fig. 4. Life cycle of wear resistant DCI with medium manganese content.

Table 6
The environmental impacts for wear resistant DCI with 3.4% C and 3.3% Si (for 1 ton grinding balls)

Process Waste (%) Sewage (%) Solid (%) Energy (%)

gases (ton) waste consumption
(kg) (ton) (106 kJ)
Coal mining 99 2.21 – – 0.298 3.18 0.23 0.87
Coking 17 0.38 0.201 0.69 0.223 2.38 y2.19 y8.25
Iron ore mining 49 1.09 8.580 29.33 7.150 76.35 0.11 0.41
Sintering 429 9.58 – – 0.169 1.80 3.06 11.52
Iron smelting (pig iron) 1440 32.15 2.803 9.58 0.575 6.14 13.36 50.30
Ferrous alloys production 1574 35.14 – – 0.468 5.00 3.35 12.61
Melting (cast iron) 642 14.33 12.573 42.97 0.114 1.22 5.76 21.70
Molding and casting 163 3.64 4.80 16.41 0.36 3.84 2.55 9.60
Finishing 10 0.22 0.30 1.03 0.008 0.09 0.07 0.26
Transportation 56 1.25 – – – – 0.26 0.98
Total 4479 100 29.257 100 9.365 100 26.56 100

Table 7
The environmental impacts for wear resistant DCI with 2.4% C and 5.5% Si (for 1 ton grinding balls)

Process Waste (%) Sewage (%) Solid (%) Energy (%)

gases (ton) waste consumption
(kg) (ton) (106 kJ)
Coal mining 70 1.97 – – 0.210 4.09 0.162 0.88
Coking 12 0.34 0.146 0.62 0.162 3.16 y1.59 y8.61
Iron ore mining 25 0.70 4.284 18.23 3.570 69.58 0.057 0.31
Sintering 214 6.02 – – 0.084 1.64 1.526 8.27
Iron smelting (pig iron) 719 20.23 1.399 5.95 0.287 5.59 6.669 36.13
Ferrous alloys production 1643 46.23 – – 0.336 6.55 3.0 16.25
Melting (cast iron) 642 18.06 12.573 53.50 0.114 2.22 5.76 31.20
Molding and casting 163 4.59 4.8 20.43 0.360 7.02 2.55 13.81
Finishing 10 0.28 0.3 1.28 0.008 0.16 0.07 0.38
Transportation 56 1.58 – – – – 0.26 1.41
Total 3554 100 23.50 100 5.131 100 18.46 100
68 X. Jincheng / Materials and Design 24 (2003) 63–68
Table 8
Comparison of environmental impacts for two types of wear resistant DCI (for per ton grinding ball produced with the material)
Material Energy
consumption (106 kJ)
KmTQMn6 26.56
Low carbon DCI 18.46
Reduction (%) 30.50
with the new material, either cast in metal molds or in
sand molds, do not contain any troostite. The production
process is much easier to control.
4. Life cycle analysis of the wear resistant ductile
cast iron
The life cycle of the wear resistant DCI with medium
manganese content is shown in Fig. 4. In Refs. w7–9x
the authors offered the environmental impact data for
some metallurgical processes and products. These data
can be used to calculate the environmental impacts for
wear resistant ductile iron. Using LCA software devel-
oped by us w10x, we calculate the environmental impacts
of 1 ton of grinding balls made with the ductile iron
with medium manganese contents in the life cycle
(Tables 6 and 7). Table 8 shows the comparison of the
environmental impacts of both materials. The airborne
emissions mainly are CO2, which is produced in the
processes of use and production of various sorts of
energies and take a proportion of 90% of waste gases.
The others are fumes, CO, SOX and NOX and so on.
Solid waste is mainly the mine tail and gangue, which
comes from the processes of mining, concentration and
takes a proportion of 80% of the total solid waste. The
slag of metallurgical processes takes the second place.
Both materials have the same sort of emissions, except
the emission quantities are different in each process.
Therefore, we only compare the total amount of
emissions.
The traditional wear resistant DCI is based on the
natural resources and the low carbon wear resistant DCI
with medium manganese content is partly based on the
secondary resources (recycled resources). Comparing
both materials, 1 ton balls made with the new material
save 54 kg of manganese resource and 400 kg of pig
iron, thus it largely reduces the environmental impacts
in its life cycle. It is significant for saving energy,
Waste gas Sewage Waste solids
emission (kg) (ton) (ton)
4479 29.26 9.37
3554 23.50 5.13
20.65 19.69 45.24
limiting the emission of greenhouse gases and reducing
the environmental pollution.
5. Conclusions
a. Low carbon wear resistant DCI with medium man-
ganese content has good abrasive wear performance.
b. Properly increasing the silicon content, the amount of
carbides in the material can be reduced to improve
the toughness.
c. The production processes of low carbon wear resistant
DCI can use large amounts of high manganese steel
scraps, which can save large amounts of manganese
resource and pig iron, thus the environmental impacts
of the material in the life cycle are reduced. Therefore,
the cast iron is a type of environmental conscious
material.
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