Papers by Keyword: Eutectic Carbides

Abstract: This work is designed to better understand the influence of cooling rate on the nature and morphology of intercellular precipitates in Silicon-Molybdenum ferritic ductile iron (SiMo). Plates of 3, 6, 9 mm thickness were cast in greensand and investment casting molds to give a wide spectrum of cooling rates. It was found that at higher cooling rates, the intercellular regions have a lamellar structure typical of pearlite. With decreasing cooling rates, the precipitate contains complex (Fe-Mo-Si) carbides of fine spheroidal or rod-like structure surrounding the eutectic carbides.Intensive Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) and Optical Microscopy (OM) investigations showed that the eutectic carbides are mainly (Fe, Mo, Si) C containing up to 48% Mo, whereas the fine precipitates contain lower Mo-contents. Both carbide types did not show to have a strict stoichometric composition. The solidification and solid-state transformation path was determined using both phase diagram calculated from Thermo-Calc software as well as Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC).

Abstract: Continuous casting has been widely applied in the production of steels and other metals. However, it has been rarely used in producing high speed steels, which are still manufactured by the conventional method of mould-casting. Thus, little is known about the microstructure of high speed steels made by the continuous casting technology. In the present work, AISI M2 steel is produced by horizontal continuous casting and the difference of solidification microstructure of ingots by different casting technologies has been examined. The results show that the networks of M2C eutectic carbides are greatly refined in the ingot by continuous casting compared to that by mould casting. Meanwhile, the morphology of M2C eutectic carbides changes from the plate-like type to the fibrous one, due to the increasing cooling rates. Compared with the plate-like M2C, the fibrous M2C in continuous casting ingots is less stable and decomposes faster at high temperatures, spheroidizing obviously after heating and refining dimensions of carbides.