What is Ductile Iron?

Ductile iron was first invented in the 50s of the 20th century. At that time, Swiss scientists experimented with different additives and die casting processes based on the existing spheroidization technology and the research results of cast iron materials, in order to achieve the goals of high strength, good ductility and strong corrosion resistance. After continuous testing and improvement, it finally succeeded in forming spherical graphite on the surface of the casting, forming the basic form of ductile iron.

The manufacturing process of ductile iron: The manufacturing process of ductile iron is similar to the general casting process, but requires the addition of a specific nodularizing agent to the molten iron in the molten state to form a spheroidal graphite microstructure after solidification. These additives generally include elements such as aluminium, calcium, and zirconium, which can be used to control the composition and solidification rate of molten iron. Surface treatment operations such as nickel coating are also often carried out prior to shrink moulding to improve the finish of its surface and other mechanical property parameters.

Application fields of ductile iron: Ductile iron has excellent properties such as excellent machinability, high strength, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, fatigue resistance and high temperature stability, and is one of the widely used materials in many traditional industries (such as machinery manufacturing, automobile industry, construction engineering, water conservancy engineering, etc.). The physical and mechanical properties of ductile iron are closely related to the subtle microstructure changes in the heat treatment process, so the research on its manufacturing process and material design has also been a hot area in recent years. In the future, with the continuous upgrading of technology and the gradual widespread application, we have reason to believe that ductile iron will play a more important and extensive role in various industries.

Ductile iron is a material with excellent properties, and through the above introduction, we understand its research and development background, manufacturing process and wide range of applications. At the same time, we should also recognise that the detailed design and surface treatment of this material have an important impact, and it needs to be manufactured and applied on the basis of comprehensive consideration of material properties and overall design.