Influence of Iron Powder Addition on the Number of Primary Austenite Grains and Tensile Strength of Inoculated Cast Iron

The study proves that by introducing the iron powder to low-sulphur cast iron still before the inoculation carried out with a conventional graphitising inoculant, the mechanical properties similar to those obtained during the inoculation treatment carried out on cast iron with the recommended high sulphur content are achieved. The said operation increases the number of crystallisation nuclei for of the primary austenite dendrites. In this case, the iron particles act as substrates for the nucleation of primary austenite due to a similar crystallographic behaviour of the regular face centered cubic lattice The more numerous are the dendrites of primary austenite, the less free space is available in the interdendritic spaces for the formation of graphite eutectic grains, which makes the mechanical properties higher.