Advanced Materials Research Vols.

418-420 (2012) pp 1768-1771

Online available since 2011/Dec/06 at www.scientific.net
© (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.418-420.1768

Hardness and Impact Toughness of Niobium Alloyed Austempered

Ductile Iron
B. Abdullah 1, a, S. K. Alias 1,b, A. Jaffar 1 , F.R.Wong1,c, and A. Ramli2
1
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
2
Faculty of Sciences & Biotechnology, Universiti Selangor, Malaysia
a
bulan_abd@yahoo.com.sg, bkhadijah_alias@yahoo.com, cfreddawati@salam.uitm.edu.my,

Keywords: Austempered ductile iron, niobium, hardness and impact toughness.

Abstract. The effect of different austempering holding times on the hardness and impact toughness
of 0.254% niobium alloyed austempered ductile iron was investigated in this study. Molten ductile
iron was prepared in an induction furnace with capacity of 60kg. Samples with dimension of 300m x
Ø25mm in form of Y block double cylinder was constituted and solidified samples were then
machined in accordance to ASTM E23 for impact test specimens. Samples were ground and polished
before Rockwell hardness test was conducted. Austempering heat treatment process with
austenitizing temperature of 900˚C for 1 hour and austempering temperature of 350˚C for 1 hour, 2
hours and 3 hour holding times were then carried out. The results from this research indicated that
austempering the sample for 1 hour resulted in significant improvement of the impact toughness
values but increasing the austempering holding time deficiently reduced the values. On the contrary,
the hardness of niobium alloyed austempered ductile iron continues to increase with respect to longer
austempering holding times.

Introduction
Austempered ductile iron or ADI is merging as one of as cast material which possessed
inevitably superior impact toughness and excellent hardness, distinguished by the nature of their
microstructure containing bainitic and austenitic structures [1]. These were mainly attributed by two
main factors inclusive of the selection of austempering temperatures and times as well as the effect of
alloying addition to ADI [2-6]. With respect to that, good number of studies had been conducted
previously to further enhanced the hardness and impact toughness of ADI, thus expanding the
applications of this material [2-8]
In the study by past research, plain ADI and copper alloyed ADI were austempered at 270, 290,
320 and 350 ◦C for 2 hour and air cooled to room temperature. The findings indicated that the
hardness of both plain ADI and copper alloyed ADI decreased with respect to higher austempered
temperature. Lower austempering temperatures yield a finer structure and therefore higher hardness
[5]. Past studies on the hardness of 0.48wt % and 4.88 wt % aluminium alloyed ADI which was
austempered at 400 ◦C for 100 minutes indicated that high amount of aluminium resulted in higher
hardness value as the microstructure of carbide-free bainitic ferrite and high carbon retained austenite
was observed [6].
It was also evaluated that from past research that austempering ADI samples for 2 hours resulted
in favourable hardness values when the samples were austempered at 250◦C, 350◦C and 400◦C[7] . It
was pointed out that austempering process from 340°C to 375°C decreased the hardness of ADI
samples with increment of austempering temperature while the impact toughness indicate significant
increases as the austempering temperature is raised which is largely associated with their ausferrite
matrix [8]. Previously, addition of niobium had resulted in improvement on the properties of steel
[9-10]. Although a vast number had been accomplished previously, there are however little evidence
on the effect of niobium on the hardness and impact toughness of ADI. Thus, this present work
purposed to investigate the effect of niobium addition on alloyed ADI with respect to different
austempering holding times.

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 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 418-420 1769

Research Methodology
Samples Preparation
Molten ductile iron was prepared in an induction furnace with capacity of 60kg. Samples with
dimension of 300m x Ø25mm in form of Y block double cylinder was constituted and solidified
samples were then machined in accordance to ASTM E23 for impact test specimens. Table 1 shows
the chemical compositions of niobium alloyed ductile iron samples which were obtained through Arc
Spark Optical Emission Spectrometer.

Table 1
Chemical compositions of ductile iron and niobium alloyed ductile iron (wt %)
Chemical compositions (wt %)
Samples Types
C Si Mn P Cu Ni Mg Nb Fe
Niobium alloyed ductile iron 3.53 1.83 0.40 0.078 0.68 0.51 0.402 0.254 92.21

Austempering Heat Treatment

The heat treatment cycle started by austenitizing process at 900˚C for 1 hour before quickly
immersed the samples in salt bath at 350˚C for 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours holding times
subsequently. Finally, samples were taken out and cooled at room temperatures.

Hardness and impact test

Rockwell hardness tests were performed at room temperature according to ASTM El8 using
Rockwell Hardness Tester Machine (Wilson Series 600) tester on the sides surface of machined
Charpy impact specimens. Reported hardness values are the average of at least 10 hardness
measurements. The Charpy impact tests were made at room temperature using a Charpy impact
pendulum tester, the maximum energy capacity are 300 Joule, on 45˚ notched samples type with the
dimension 55 x 10 x 10 mm according ASTM E23 standard.

Findings and Discussions

Hardness
Fig. 1 shows the effect of austempering time on hardness values for niobium alloyed ductile iron.
In comparison to as cast samples, it was evaluated that a noteworthy improvement of hardness values
was noted after austempering the samples for 1 hour holding times. This was mainly due to the
microstructures which were mainly consisted of graphite nodules surrounded by fine lower bainite
ferrite structures[11]. Finer structures make it hard for dislocations to occur resulted in higher
hardness values. The findings also explicitly confirmed that austempering process had increased the
hardness values with respect to longer austempering time.
Additionally, increment of austempering holding times to 3 hour resulted in higher hardness
values compared to ductile iron samples austempered at the same holding times. This was mainly
because lower bainite structure that was formed in the structures of niobium alloyed austempered
ductile iron[11]. Comparably, past study also demonstrated that the hardness values of austempered
ductile iron increased from 1 hour to 2 hours of austempering time at the temperature in between
350°C to 400°C [7]. It was also found out that increment of austempering temperature from 260°C to
390°C resulted in reduction of hardness values due to increment of austenite percentages in the
microstructure [12].
1770 Materials Processing Technology, ICAMMP2011

Hardness vs Different Austempering Time

45
41,275

40 39,35
38,6375
Hardness (HRC)

36,325

35

30

25
as cast 1 hour 2 hours 3 hours

Fig 1. Hardness values on different austempering time of Nb-Ductile Iron

Impact toughness
The results for impact toughness values on different austempering time of Nb-Ductile Iron are
shown in Fig. 2. The impact value of as cast niobium alloyed ductile iron was averaged at 11 Joule
and austempering process had appreciably improved the impact toughness properties as the
transformation from pearlitic and ferrite matrices in as cast samples to ferrite platelets and bainitic
structure in austempered samples[11]. After austempering the samples for 1 hour, the impact
toughness values attaining the optimum values of approximately 17%, which is 51% higher than as
cast samples. This was attributed by fine ferrite platelets and lower bainitic structures.
It was demonstrated that the increment of austempering time from 2 hours to 3 hours holding
times promoted coarser ferrite platelets structures and bainitic structure, thus reducing the impact
energy of the samples. In contrast, it was observed that the impact energy of Cu-Ni-Mo alloyed ADI
which was austempered at 400 º C possessed very low impact energy from 0.5 to 5 hours
austempering holding times as martensite was predominantly appears and provokes the brittle
fracture through the whole austempering interval [13].

Impact vs Different Austempering Time

20,00
16,67
16,00

11,00
Impact (J)

12,00
7,83
8,00
5,67

4,00

0,00
As Cast 1 Hour 2 Hours 3 Hours
Nb-Ductile Iron (Austempered)

Fig. 2. Impact toughness values on different austempering time of Nb-Ductile Iron

 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 418-420 1771

Conclusions
The effect of different austempering time on the hardness and impact toughness of niobium alloyed
ductile iron was investigated and the following conclusion can be constituted:
• Austempering process had resulted in favourable effect on the hardness values of niobium
austempered ductile iron as the hardness increased as compared to as cast samples as
transformation from pearlitic and ferritic structures to ferrite platelets and bainitic structures was
evaluated.
• The hardness values were found to be gradually increased with respect to longer austempering
holding times from 1 hour to 3 hours.
• The impact toughness for niobium alloyed ductile iron after austempering for 1 hour holding
times attained the highest impact toughness values compared to other types of samples. The
values however reduced as longer austempering holding times were applied.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Ministry of Science and Technology,
Malaysia (MOSTI) and Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (MOHE) for the financial support
given to this work.

References
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International Society for Optical Engineering 7522 (2010) art. No. 7522450
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Materials Processing Technology, ICAMMP2011
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.418-420

Hardness and Impact Toughness of Niobium Alloyed Austempered Ductile Iron

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.418-420.1768