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Study on the Effects of Austempering Variables

and Copper Addition on Mechanical Properties of
Austempered Ductile Iron

Conference Paper December 2016

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 Proceedings of
6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference
th th

(AIMTDR-2016)
College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA
December 16-18, 2016

Study on the Effects of Austempering Variables and

Copper Addition on Mechanical Properties of Austempered
Ductile Iron
Abhishek Sharma1, K.K. Singh2 and G.K. Gupta3
1,2NationalInstitute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi, India
3CSIR-Advanced Material and Processing Research Institute, Bhopal, India
E-mail: 1abhi.sapne@gmail.com, 2kksingh_nifft@yahoo.com, 3gauravgupta@ampri.res.in

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: In the present work, the effect of copper along with the austempering variables such as austempering
Austempered Ductile Iron temperature and austempering time are studied on the mechanical properties and microstructure of
Pearlite Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI). It is observed that with increasing austempering time tensile
Austenite strength and hardness decreases while elongation and impact toughness increases. With increasing
Retained Austenite austempering temperature hardness and tensile strength are decreased and elongation and impact
Impact Toughness toughness increases. Austempered ductile iron with copper shows higher strength, hardness, and
lower elongation than the austempered ductile iron without Copper. Copper in ADI increases the
impact toughness and hardness drastically. In microstructure, Copper acts as a pearlite stabilizer in
the case of as-cast ductile iron while it acts as an austenite stabilizer in the case of austempered
ductile iron. As the amount of retained austenite increased by longer austempering time, the impact
toughness of austempered ductile iron is found to increase while the hardness decreases marginally in
case of longer austempering time for both compositions.

1. Introduction The aim of the present work is to study the effect of Cu

content and variation of austempering time & temperature on
Austempered Ductile Iron is a class of advanced material of mechanical properties and to correlate them with the
cast iron family which is obtained by subjecting high-quality microstructure obtained during austempering.
ductile iron to a special heat treatment cycle known as
austempering. The heat treatment cycle consists of a high- 2. Experimental procedure
temperature Austenitizing, quenching to an intermediate bainitic 2.1 Material Preparation
temperature range and air cooling it after holding for some
predetermined time. This heat treatment cycle results in a Two grades of high-quality ductile iron were produced
unique matrix containing bainitic ferrite and retained austenite. using high-frequency induction furnace. Magnesium treatment
This gives the iron an excellent combination of ductility [1]-[3] of molten metal was carried out by Fe-45Si-5 Mg alloy. The
and strength [4] along with toughness, wear resistance and inoculants Fe-75Si was added to the molten metal immediately
fatigue resistance [5]-[7]. before casting. The melt was poured at 1450C into cylindrical
Austempered ductile iron shows good strength and Tensile bar (Diameter 35 mm and length 300 mm) and
toughness, because of no cementite precipitates, which rectangular plate (150 mm75 mm 25 mm) as shown in Fig. 1.
decreases toughness, while a presence of a large amount of Out of the two batches, one is without copper and another
retained austenite contributes towards high toughness. The contains copper in some proportion. The chemical compositions
requirements for producing good quality ADI include stringent of the two batches of ductile iron are shown in Table 1.
control over base ductile iron quality, heat treatment parameters
like austenitizing and austempering time and temperature etc.
In earlier reported works [8]-[9], sufficient information on
variation of mechanical properties are not provided. The
variation of copper content was kept above the solubility limit
and thus no information regarding the behaviour of ADI at
lower concentration of Cu was provided.
Successful application of ADI continues to be reported and
demonstrated in automotive components, earth-moving
machinery, and railways etc. [10]-[12].The mechanism of
transformation of austenite phase during the isothermal holding
of ductile iron is well known [13]-[15]. Fig. 1. Schematic representation of castings

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 Study on the Effects of Austempering Variables and Copper Addition on Mechanical Properties of Austempered Ductile Iron

Table 1 taken for different heat treated specimen by using Scanning

Chemical composition of ductile iron
Electron Microscope (SEM) of JEOL-5600.
C Si Mn S Cr Ni Mg Cu
With 3.60 2.55 0.25 0.150 0.008 0.005 0.107 0.45 4. Results and discussion
Copper
Without 3.67 2.64 0.238 0.150 0.072 0.008 0.080 0.03 4.1 Un-alloyed Ductile Iron
Copper
Figure 3 shows the as-cast microstructure of the unalloyed
3. Heat treatment ductile iron (DI). It is clearly visible from the microstructure
that the sample is having adequate nodularity. The gray area in
The heat treatment consists of two stage processing: the microstructure represents pearlite while the white area
Austenitizing and Austempering represents the ferritic phase present in the matrix. Due to the
Specimens were heated tothe temperature of 950C in a presence of varying amount of pearlite and ferrite, the matrix is
resistance furnace for 2 hours so that the specimen got properly having a non-homogeneous structure. Consequently, the amount
homogenized [16]. of carbon is not uniform and varies at different regions.
A salt bath was prepared by taking 40%NaNO3 and 60 %
KnO3 (By Moles) salt mixture in a salt bath furnace.
After homogenization at 950 C, the specimens taken out of
the furnace and immediately put into the salt bath furnace where
the containers with the salt mixture were kept at fixed
temperature for 360C and for other at 300C.
In the salt bath, the specimens were heldat two different
times (60 minutes and 90 minutes). In this time the austenite
gets converted to required microstructure. The objective behind
choosing the maximum temperature of 360C is that heat
treating within this temperature will give the acicular structure
Fig. 3. The microstructure of unalloyedas-cast DI
of lower bainitic ferrite. The heat treatment cycle is shown in
the Fig. 2. The microstructure of ADI formed by austempering at
300C for 60 minutes consists of fine needle-shapedlower
3.1 Mechanical testing bainite uniformly distributed throughout the structure and
A tensile test specimen of 8mm gauge diameter and 32 mm retained austenite appearing in between these ferrite needles as
gauge length was prepared as per ASTM E8 standard. Tensile shown in Fig. 4. At lower austempering temperature the
Test was conducted by using theuniversal testing machine nucleation of bainite is faster, but during the formation of
(UTM 100). bainite, the rejected carbon diffuses only to theshorter distance
The impact toughness test wascarried out using a Charpy and thus formation of fine bainite and austenite takes place [17].
impact tester with the strain rate of 103S-1. The test sample was Fine structure of ferrite platelets and the low amount of retained
prepared according to the ASTM standard E327M. austenite contribute to this high strength.

Fig. 2. Heat treatment cycle

Fig. 4. Unalloyed DI austempered at 300C for 60 minutes
The heat treated samples of suitable size were polished on
Austempering at a higher austempering temperature of
different grades of emery papers (or SiC papers) for hardness
360C for 60 minutes leads to coarser upper bainite (Fig. 5).
test.Brinell hardness test was performed at room temperature to
The retained austenite amount is increased and is present in
measure the bulk hardness of the ductile iron specimens in
large blocky form while there are no traces of lower bainite in
HBW scale on Brinell Hardness Tester. The 250 kg load was
the microstructure as shown in Fig. 5. This can be attributed at
applied through the ball-shaped indenter for 30 seconds during
higher austempering temperature the carbon rejected during the
testing of both as cast as well as heat treated samples. Three
transformation of bainite can diffuse to longer distances which
readings for each sample was taken over the entire surface and
result in the formation of coarser upper bainite and blocky
averaged to get the final hardness result.
austenite [17].
3.2 Microstructural analysis Figures 6 and 7 shows the microstructures of ADI
austempered for 90 minutes at anaustempering temperature of
From each specimen, samples weretaken to determine the 300C and 360C respectively. At longer austempering periods
microstructure. Samples are firstly polished on SiC paper of of 90 min, the structure consists of fine bainitic ferrite and
retained austenite.This is due to the rejection of carbon to the
with Alumina. The samples were etched using 2% Nital (2% residual austenite.This rejected amount of carbon in
conc. Nitric acid in methanol solution).Microstructures were surrounding austenite goes on increasing as the austempering
1057 ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0
 6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR2016)
th th

College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA

progress and leads to more bainitic transformation resulting in

the increased amount of carbon enriched austenite and fine
bainite [17]. However, at longer treatment times, carbon
enrichment of austenite may be sufficient to result into retained
austenite on cooling.

Fig. 5. Unalloyed DI austempered at 360C for 60 minutes

Fig. 6. Unalloyed DI austempered at 300C for 90 min

Fig. 7. Unalloyed DI austempered at 360C for 90 min

The mechanical properties of unalloyed DI austempered at
different temperature and times are shown in Fig. 8.
Figure 8(a) shows the variation of Tensile Strength with
respect to the austempering Temperature at austempering time
of 60 Minutes and 90 Minutes for unalloyed ductile iron. It is
observed that the tensile strength decreases for the higher
austempering time. This is attributed to the crossing of reaction
from toughening stage to embrittlement stage. Here the high
carbon retained austenite formed in stage 1 of toughening get
converts into ferrite and Carbide [18]. The tensile strength
decreases as the temperature increases from 300C to 360C for
both the austempering times. Acicular bainitic ferrite and
retained austenite results in high strength at alowaustempering
temperature as shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 6.
Ductility at higher austempering temperatures as shown in
Fig. 8(b) and 8(c) respectively.
The blocky Retained austenite associated with fig. 5results
in the increase of Impact toughness and The larger amount of
retained austenite at higheraustempering time results in greater
impact energyand ductility whereas the hardness decreases as Fig. 8. Effect of austempering temperature and time on (a) UTS (b) Impact
shown in Fig. 8(d). energy (c) Ductility (d) Hardness of unalloyed DI

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 Study on the Effects of Austempering Variables and Copper Addition on Mechanical Properties of Austempered Ductile Iron

4.2 Copper alloyed ductile iron temperature as shown in Fig. 11(a). The higher tensile strength
at a higher austempering time is justified previously.
Figure 9 shows the microstructure of as-cast DI alloyed
This higher amount of retained austenite at higher
with 0.45% Cu. The rate of formation of pearlite is increased on
austempering temperature also leads to the increase in ductility
alloying with 0.45% Cu. This is a contradiction as copper is
and decrease in hardness at higher austempering temperature
known to be an austenite stabilizer [19]. This can be attributed
due to soft structure of retained austenite.
to the formation of barrier in the vicinity of graphite nodules
takes place with the addition of Cu. This barrier could have
blocked the diffusion of carbon atoms to the graphite nodules.
Hence a considerable amount of pearlite was formed during the
eutectoid transformation of austenite cooling.

Fig. 9. Cu alloyed as cast Ductile Iron

It has been observed that Cu acts as a pearlite stabilizer in
as-cast DI as it increases the amount of pearlite in the
microstructure. But in the case of ADI, Cu acts as an austenite
stabilizer as it increases the amount of retained austenite in the
structure as shown in Fig. 10(a). The amount of retained
austenite increases as the austempering temperature and time
increases as shown in Fig. 10(b), 10(c) and 10(d).

Fig. 10. Cu alloyed DI austempered at (a) 300C for 60 min (b) 300C for
90 min (c) 360C for 60 min (d) 360C for 90 min.
The acicular ferrite structure was found when austempered
at alower temperature of 300C as shown in Fig. 10(a).
However, as the austempering time increases from 60minutes to
90 minutes, the acicular ferrite structure transforms to coarse
ferrite as shown in Fig. 10(b). Due to this coarse ferrite structure
the impact toughness increases as shown in Fig. 11(b).
It is observed that lower austempering temperature leads to
a fine or lower bainitic structure while higher temperature due
to grain coarsening effect transformation of lower bainitic
structure to upper bainitic or coarse structure takes place as
shown in Fig. 10(c) and 10(d).
The unalloyed ADI has a lower hardness as compared to
Cu alloyed ADI. Other than Cu rich phase there is no obvious
reason in the microstructure to explain this significant
difference in hardness [8].
As it is clearly visible from Fig. 10 that higher
austempering temperature leads to the higher amount of
retained austenite in the matrix. This higher amount of retained Fig. 11. Effect of austempering temperature and time on (a) UTS (b) Impact
austenite decreases the tensile strength at a higher austempering energy (c) Ductility (d) Hardness of Cu alloyed DI

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 6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR2016)
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College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA

5. Conclusion [4] S. K. Putatunda Development of austempered ductile cast iron (ADI)

with simultaneous high yield strength and fracture toughness by a
Effect of copper, austempering time and temperature was novel two-step austempering process, Mater. Sci. Eng., A, 315 (2001),
successfully studied. The microstructure, hardness, tensile pp 70-80.
[5] O. Eric, L. Sidjanin, Z. Miskovic, S. Zec, M.T. Jovanovic, Microstructure
strength and impact toughness were evaluated. The following and toughness of Cu, Ni, Mo austempered ductile iron. Mater. Lett.
conclusions are derived from the present study: 58(2004) pp 2707-2711.
1. The increase in austempering time reduces the tensile [6] Kim YJ, Shin H, Park H, Lim JD. Mater Lett 62(2008) pp 35760.
strength and hardness while a reverse trend has been [7] Lerner YS, Kingsbury GR. J Mater Eng Perform 7(1998) pp 4852.
[8] P.W. Shelton and A.A. Bonner, The effect of copper additions to the
seen for elongation and impact toughness in both the mechanical properties of austempered ductile iron (ADI), J. Mater.
batches of ductile iron. Process. Technol., 173(2006), No. 3, p. 269.
2. The ductile iron alloyed with copper hasshown [9] S.K. Sahoo, S.C. Patnaik, S. Sen, J. Majhi, An austempering study of
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Austempered Ductile Iron, Journal Of Materials & Metallurgical
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Acknowledgment [15] J.F. Dias, G.O. Ribeiro, D.J. Carmo, J.J. Vilela, Mater. Sci. Eng., A556
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The authors wish to acknowledge testing and [16] Hafiz M.Mechanical properties of SG iron subjected to variable and
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Processes Research Institute, Bhopal, India. A, 340(2003) pp 1-7.
[17] Uma Batra, S. Ray, S.R. Prabhakar J. of Materi Eng and Perform,
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ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0 1060

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