CLASSIFICATION OF MATERIALS

FERROUS MATERIALS

Ferrous Materials - Steels

Alloys of iron-carbon. May contain other alloying elements.
Several grades are available.
Low Alloy (<10 wt%)
Low Carbon (<0.25 wt% C)
Medium Carbon (0.25 to 0.60 wt%)
High Carbon (0.6 to 1.4 wt%)
High Alloy
Stainless Steel (> 11 wt% Cr)
Tool Steel

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Low Carbon Steel
Plain carbon steels - very low content of alloying elements and small
amounts of Mn.
Most abundant grade of steel is low carbon steel greatest quantity
produced; least expensive.
Not responsive to heat treatment; cold working needed to improve the
strength.
Good Weldability and machinability
High Strength, Low Alloy (HSLA) steels - alloying elements (like Cu, V,
Ni and Mo) up to 10 wt %; have higher strengths and may be heat
treated.

Medium Carbon Steel

Carbon content in the range of 0.3 0.6%.
Can be heat treated - austenitizing, quenching and then tempering.
Most often used in tempered condition tempered martensite
Medium carbon steels have low hardenability
Addition of Cr, Ni, Mo improves the heat treating capacity
Heat treated alloys are stronger but have lower ductility
Typical applications Railway wheels and tracks, gears, crankshafts.

High Carbon Steel

High carbon steels Carbon content 0.6 1.4%
High C content provides high hardness and strength. Hardest and least
ductile.
Used in hardened and tempered condition
Strong carbide formers like Cr, V, W are added as alloying elements to
from carbides of these metals.
Used as tool and die steels owing to the high hardness and wear
resistance property

Effects of Alloying Elements on Steel

Manganese decreases ductility and weldability; affects hardenability
of steel.
Phosphorus increases strength and hardness and decreases ductility
and notch impact toughness of steel.
Sulfur decreases ductility and notch impact toughness Weldability
decreases.
Silicon one of the principal deoxidizers used in steelmaking. In low-
carbon steels, silicon is generally detrimental to surface quality.

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 Copper detrimental to hot-working steels; beneficial to corrosion
resistance (Cu>0.20%)
Nickel - ferrite strengthener; increases the hardenability and impact
strength of steels.
Molybdenum increases the hardenability; enhances the creep
resistance of low-alloy steels

Stainless steel
Stainless steels - A group of steels that contain at least 11% Cr.
Exhibits extraordinary corrosion resistance due to formation of a very
thin layer of Cr2O3 on the surface.
Categories of stainless steels:
Ferritic Stainless Steels Composed of alpha ferrite (BCC)
Martensitic Stainless Steels Can be heat treated.
Austenitic Stainless Steels Most corrosion rsistant.
Precipitation-Hardening (PH) Stainless Steels Ultra high strength due
to precipitation hardening.
Duplex Stainless Steels Ferrite + Austenite

Cast irons
Contains carbon 2.1- 4.5 wt% and Si (normally 1-3 wt%).
Lower melting point (about 300 C lower than pure iron) due to
presence of eutectic point at 1153 C and 4.2 wt% C.
Low shrinkage and good fluidity and casting ability.
Types of cast iron:
grey, white, nodular, malleable and compacted graphite.

Grey Cast Iron

Grey cast iron contains graphite in the form of flakes. Named after its
grey fractured surface. C:3.0 4.0 wt%, Si: 1.0 3.0 %
Microstructure: graphite flakes in a ferrite or pearlite matrix
Weak & brittle in tension (the graphite flake tips act as stress
concentration sites).Stronger in compression,
Excellent damping capacity and wear resistance.
Microstructure modification by varying silicon content and cooling rate
Casting shrinkage is low

Nodular or Ductile Iron

Addition of Mg and/or Cerium to grey iron converts the graphite flakes
to nodules.
Normally a pearlite matrix.
Castings are stronger and much more ductile than grey iron as the
stress concentration points existing at the flake tips are eliminated.

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White Cast Iron
White cast iron C: 2.5 3 wt.%, Si: 0.5 1.5%. Most of the carbon is
in the form of cementite.
Named after its white fracture surface.
Results from faster cooling. Contains pearlite + cementite, not
graphite.
Thickness variation may result in nonuniform microstructure from
variable cooling
Very hard and brittle
Used as intermediate to produce malleable cast iron.

Malleable Cast Iron

Malleable cast iron Carbon: 2.3 2.7 wt%, Si: 1.0 1.75 %
Obtained by heat treating white iron for a prolonged period that causes
decomposition of cementite into graphite.
Heat treatment: Two stages Isothermal holding at 9500C and then
holding at 7200C.
Graphite forms in the form of rosettes in a ferrite or pearlite matrix.
Reasonable strength and improved ductility (malleable)

Compact Graphite Iron (CGI)

CGI graphite occurs as blunt flakes or with a worm-like shape
(vermicular). Carbon: 3.1 4.0 wt%, Silicon: 1.7 3.0 wt %.
Microstructure and properties are between gray and ductile iron.
Alloying addition may be needed to minimize the sharp edges and
formation of spheroidal graphite. Matrix varies with alloy, additions or
heat treatment.
As castable as grey iron, but has a higher tensile strength and some
ductility.
Relatively high thermal conductivity, good resistance to thermal shock,
lower oxidation at elevated temperatures.

Applications of Cast iron

Cast irons are used in wide variety of application owing to the properties like
good fluidity, ease of casting, low shrinkage, excellent machinability, wear
resistance and damping capacity.
Applications
Car parts cylinder heads, blocks and gearbox cases.
Pipes, lids (manhole lids)
Foundation for big machines (good damping property)
Bridges, buildings
Cook wares Excellent heat retention

The iron carbon system, phase transformations

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Phase a portion of a system that has uniform physical and chemical
characteristics. Two distinct phases in a system have distinct physical or
chemical characteristics (e.g. water and ice) and are separated from each
other by definite phase boundaries. A phase may contain one or more
components.
A single-phase system is called homogeneous, systems with two or more
phases are mixtures or heterogeneous systems.
A phase diagram - graphical representation of the combinations of
temperature, pressure, composition, or other variables for which specific
phases exist at equilibrium.
A phase diagrams show what phases exist at equilibrium and what phase
transformations we can expect when we change one of the parameters of
the system (T, P, composition)

Binary Isomorphous Systems (I)

Isomorphous system - complete solid solubility of the two components (both
in the liquid and solid phases).
Three phase region can be identified on the phase diagram: Liquid (L) , solid
+ liquid ( +L), solid ( ) Liquidus line separates liquid from liquid + solid
Solidus line separates solid from liquid + solid

Example of isomorphous system: Cu-Ni (the complete solubility occurs

because both Cu and Ni have the same crystal structure, FCC, similar radii,
electronegativity and valence)

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In one-component system melting occurs at a well-defined melting
temperature. In multi-component systems melting occurs over the range of
temperatures, between the solidus and liquidus lines. Solid and liquid phases
are in equilibrium in this temperature range.

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A study of iron-carbon system is useful and important in many respects. This
is first because steels constitute greatest amount of metallic materials used
by man and secondly solid state transformations that occur in steels are
varied and interesting.

The Fe-Fe3C is characterized by five individual phases and four invariant

reactions.
Five phases that exist in the diagram are:
ferrite (BCC) Fe-C solid solution,
-austenite (FCC) Fe-C solid solution,
-ferrite (BCC) Fe-C solid solution,
Fe3C (iron carbide) or cementite - an inter-metallic compound and
liquid Fe-C solution.
Four invariant reactions that cause transformations in the system are namely
eutectoid,
eutectic,
monotectic and
peritectic.

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As depicted by left axes, pure iron upon heating exhibits two allotropic changes. One
involves ferrite of BCC crystal structure transforming to FCC austenite, -iron, at 910oC. At
14000C, austenite changes to BCC phase known as -ferrite, which finally melts at 15360C.
As depicted by left axes, pure iron upon heating exhibits two allotropic changes. One
involves ferrite of BCC crystal structure transforming to FCC austenite, -iron, at 910oC. At
1400oC, austenite changes to BCC phase known as -ferrite, which finally melts at 1536oC.
Carbon present in solid iron as interstitial impurity, and forms solid solution with ferrites /
austenite as depicted by three single fields represented by , and . Carbon dissolves
least in ferrite in which maximum amount of carbon soluble is 0.02% at 723 oC. This limited
solubility is attributed to shape and size of interstitial position in BCC ferrite. However,
carbon present greatly influences the mechanical properties of ferrite. ferrite can be
used as magnetic material below 768oC. Solubility of carbon in -iron reaches its maximum,
2.11%, at a temperature of 1147oC. Higher solubility of carbon in austenite is attributed to
FCC structure and corresponding interstitial sites. Phase transformations involving austenite
plays very significant role in heat treatment of different steels. Austenite itself is non-
magnetic. Carbon solubility in -ferrite is maximum (0.1%) at 1495oC. As this ferrite exists
only at elevated temperatures, it is of
no commercial importance. Cementite, Fe3C an inter-metallic compound forms when
amount of carbon present exceeds its solubility limit at respective temperatures. Out of
these four solid phases, cementite is hardest and brittle that is used in different forms to
increase the strength of steels. ferrite, on the other hand, is softest and act as matrix of a
composite material. By combining these two phases in a solution, a materials properties can
be varied over a large range.
For technological convenience, based on %C dissolved in it, a Fe-C solution is classified as:
commercial pure irons with less than 0.008%C; steels having %C between 0.008-2.11; while
cast irons have carbon in the range of 2.11%-6.67%. Thus commercial pure iron is composed
of exclusively ferrite at room temperature. Most of the steels and cast irons contain both
ferrite and cementite. However, commercial cast irons are not simple alloys of iron and
carbon as they contain large quantities of other elements such as silicon, thus better
consider them as ternary alloys. The presence of Si promotes the formation of graphite
instead of cementite. Thus cast irons may contain carbon in form of both graphite and
cementite, while steels will have carbon only in combined from as cementite.
As shown in figure-16, and mentioned earlier, Fe-C system constitutes four invariant
reactions:
- peritectic reaction at 1495oC and 0.16%C, -ferrite + L -iron (austenite)
- monotectic reaction 1495oC and 0.51%C, L L + -iron (austenite)
- eutectic reaction at 1147oC and 4.3 %C, L -iron + Fe3C (cementite) [ledeburite]
- eutectoid reaction at 723oC and 0.8%C, -iron ferrite + Fe3C (cementite) [pearlite]

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Simple Cubic, fcc and bcc
There are three cubic structures that general chemistry students are taught. They are called simple cubic, face-centred cubic, and body-centred cubic. They
vary in how the atoms/spheres are arranged inside of it.

Simple Cubic Body-Centred Cubic Face-Centred Cubic

Each layer is stacked Each layer is offset from Each layer is offset from
on the previous layer the layer before. the layer before.
perfectly. Arrangements duplicate Arrangements duplicate
themselves themselves
There are 8 eighths every other layer. every third layer.
(one in each corner)
for a total of ONE There are 8 eights (one in There are 8 eighths (one
atom in the unit cell each corner) and one full in each corner), and 6
atom in the centre for a halves (one on each face
total of TWO atoms in of the cube) for a total of
the unit cell FOUR atoms in the unit
cell.