The author has intended to clarify the effects of very small amounts of gaseous elements or non-metallic inclusions contained in raw pig iron. In order to eliminate these gaseous elements or inclusions from molten iron, a vacuum-melting procedure was chosen in this experiment.
At the beginning of this research, the experiments reported in this paper were made to clarify the relation between vacuum-melting of cast iron and it's mechanical properties.
Charcoal, blast furnace and synthetic pig irons (Fe-C-Si Alloy) were chosen as the ram materials. For vacuum melting, mullite and graphite crucibles were used:
And the results obtained are summarized as follows: In case of mullite crucibles used:
1) When charcoal, blast furnace and synthetic pig irons are vacuum-melted, flake graphite existing in each raw pig iron changes into fine eutectic graphites, at the same time, the pearlitic matrix changes into ferritic.
2) Tensile strength of cast iron, in general, is, immproved by vacuum-melting, but in some cases, being contrary to this, decreased. The author thinks, that more experiments must be done on this change in strength.
3) In many cases, a reticulate (graphite+pearlite) structure was observed in the specimens of vacuum-melted charcoal and blast furnace pig irons.
4) It is assumed that super cooling is induced by vacuum-melting of pig iron.
In case of graphite crucibles used:
5) When charcoal, blast furnace and synthetic pig iron are vacuum-melted using graphite crucibles, carbon percentage of molten pig iron increases remarkably, as the results, tensile strength decreases greatly accompanying with the precipitation of coarse flaky graphite in the microstructure.
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