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Ferrous Alloys
Dr. N S Mahesh Professor and Head Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engg

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Session Objectives
At the end of the session delegates should have understood Ferrous alloys and its classification
Iron-Iron Carbide diagram AISI/SAE and UNS Designation Systems Steel
High strength steels, stainless steels

Cast iron and types Heattreatment of steels

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Metal Alloys
Most engineering metallic materials are alloys. Metals are alloyed to enhance their properties, such as strength, hardness or corrosion resistance, and to create new properties, such as superconductivity and shape memory effect. Engineering metal alloys can be broadly divided into Ferrous Alloys and Non-ferrous Alloys
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Ferrous Alloys

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Why Ferrous Alloys are important as engineering construction materials?

Iron-containing compounds exist in abundant quantities within the earths crust Metallic iron and steel alloys may be produced using relatively economical manufacturing techniques Extremely versatile Steels and Cast Iron

Composition, Microstructure, Properties and Applications

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An Iron Iron carbide diagram showing the phases present in any alloy containing up to 6% Carbon
Steel generally has less than about 0.7% C, but can have up to 2.11% C. The phase diagram only strictly applies to an iron carbon combination Steel and iron often have other alloying elements in them, which modify the phase diagram

Polymorphism of Fe: At 1394 C: d g

At 912 C: g a
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Fe-Fe3C system

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Hypoeutectoid steels:

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Steel of <0.77%C. These account for low and medium carbon steels. Microstructure consists of pearlite and proeutectoid ferrite. The proportion of pearlite increases with increasing C% towards 0.77wt%. Higher portion of P makes the steel stronger but less ductile.

Pearlite (dark regions) Ferrite (white regions)

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of >0.77%C. These accounts for high-C steels. Microstructure consists of pearlite matrix and cementite network along grain boundaries; cementite network reduces toughness and ductility significantly. Proportion of cementite increases with increasing C content away from 0.77wt%.

Hypereutectoid steels: Steels

Pearlite matrix Cementite

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Low-carbon steels (mild steels): 0.1-0.25 %C

high formability, high ductility, toughness Microstructure consists of ferrite and pearlite Cold work is used to increase hardness typical applications: pipes, panels, sheets, wires

Composition of plain carbon steels

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High-strength low alloy steels (HSLA): 0.25-0.55%C

Alloying elements Copper, vanadium, nickel and molybdenum good combination of strength and ductility bridges, pressure vessels, towers, welded structures

Composition of HSLA

Mechanical properties and applications of HSLA

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AISI/SAE and UNS Designation Systems AISI: American Iron and Steel Institute SAE: Society of Automotive Engineers ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials UNS: Unified Numbering System

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Typical Applications and mechanical property ranges for oil quenched and tempered plain carbon and alloy steels

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Medium-Carbon Steels: 0.25-0.60 wt%

Microstructure: Tempered Martensite Quench and Anneal High strength and Reasonable Ductility Railway wheels, tracks, gears, crankshafts etc

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High-Carbon Steels-0.60-1.4 wt% C

Hardest, strongest and least ductility, wear resistant Carbon tool steels: 0.8~1.2%C High alloy tool steels are often alloyed with Mo, V, W, Cr and/or Ni. UNS: Txxxxx Typical applications: chisels, hammers, knives, saw blades, drills, dies, machine tool cutters, punches, cutlery, springs (0.6~0.8%C) and high strength wire Cutting blades

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Designation, composition and applications of Tool steels

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Stainless Steels ( at least 11%Cr. )

Corrosion resistant enhanced by Ni, Mo. Addition of Cr and Nickel to Fe-C will

significantly increase corrosion resistance Three basic classes, specified by microstructure: Ferritic: Fe-Cr alloys (12~25%Cr), can be cheap Martensitic: Fe-Cr alloys, low Cr, hard, cutting tools Austenitic: Fe-Cr-Ni alloys (18Cr-8Ni), corrosion resistance Ultra high strength stainless steel (17-7PH): Precipitation hardened, high strength and hardness Aust. & Ferretic steels are not HT, Alloys designation so use cold work to strengthen AISI UNS Martensitic and ferritic are 2xx S2xx00 magnetic Austenite may have large content 3xx S3xx00 304, 316, 316L (Austenitic) 4xx S4xx00 410 (Martensitic),446 (Ferritic) of Cr & Ni (best corrosion resistant) Stainless steels may resist oxidation @ high temperature up to 1000C. Used in gas turbines, steam boilers, heat-treating furnaces, aircraft.
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Stainless Steels

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Summary of Properties
Austenitic Alloying elements Corrosion resistance Oxidation resistance Strength Toughness Formability Weldability Cost 18% Cr; >8% Ni; 0.1% C (wt%) Excellent (except Cl environments) Good Moderate High Good Good High Ferritic 15-30% Cr; <1% Mo; <1% C (wt%) Good Good Low-moderate Moderate Moderate Poor-moderate Moderate Martensitic 12-17% Cr; 0.1-1%C (wt%) Moderate Moderate High Moderate Moderate Poor-moderate Moderate
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High Strength Steel Grades

Type
Low carbon mild steel sheet Rephosphorized Bake hardening HSLA Dual Phase TRIP Steel

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Range of yield Strengthening mechanism stress MPa

140-180 180-300 180-300 260-420 450-600 500-800 Residual carbon, Mn, Si Solid solution hardening Strain age hardening Grain refinement and precipitation hardening Martensitic (hard) phase in ferritic ductile matrix Transformation of retained austenite to martensite on deformation Bainitic/martensitic phases formed by controlled heat treatment
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Complex and martensitic steels

800-1200

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Heat Treatments
A Furnace Annealed Slow cooled N - Normalized - Air cooled. O - Oil Quenched WQ Water quenched. WT(370) Water quenched, tempered at 370C for 1 hour. WT(705) Water quenched, tempered at 705C for 1 hour.

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Cast Iron
Carbon content ranging from 2-4.3% Castable, hard & strong Wide range of types depending on:
1. The chemical composition of the iron; the existence of certain alloying elements. 2. The cooling rate of the casting in the mould. 3. The type of graphite formed and its percent composition.
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Fe-Fe3C diagram showing CI

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Cast Iron Types

Gray (graphite flakes) CI Malleable CI Nodular (ductile/spherulitic) CI White CI

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Gray (Graphite Flakes) CI

Gray fracture surface Maximum C% C precipitate as flakes High Si% forms flakes Good wear resistance, vibration damping machineability
Pearlitic matrix Graphite flakes
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Ductile (Nodular/spherulitic) CI
C precipitates in black nodules High fluidity/castability Good machineability Wear resistance
Pearlitic matrix Spherulites

Alloy elements produce nodules

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White CI
Iron carbide forms instead of iron and graphite Iron carbide in pearlite White fracture surface

Pearlitic matrix

Cementite

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Malleable CI
Initially formed as white CI Heat-treated in malleablizing furnace to dissociate Fe3C to iron and graphite Good wear resistance Ductility Pearlitic matrix Fluidity
Graphite clump
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Cast Irons - Microstructures

From a microstructural view point, cast irons can regarded as steels embedded with a carbon-rich phase, which can be either graphite or cementite (Fe3C). Graphite offers no strength nor toughness and acts like voids in the iron; cementite is very hard and brittle.
Grey iron: graphite flakes embedded in ferrite matrix, cutting the continuity of the matrix and rendering the metal high brittleness. White iron: cementite plates embedded in pearlite matrix, renders the metal high hardness and brittleness.

Nodular iron: graphite nodules in ferrite matrix, significantly improving toughness and ductility of the metal
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Malleable iron: graphite clusters converted from decomposing cementite in white iron, significantly improving toughness and ductility of the metal
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What is Heat Treatment?

Heat treatment is thermal processing of alloys for inducing certain property changes in the material It comprises of : Heating the material to specified temperature Holding at heat treatment temperature so that desired transformation is complete Cooling in a specified rate to room temperature Two major types a. Surface heat treatment carried out only to modify the surface properties (case hardening - nitriding, carbonitriding etc.,) b. Bulk heat treatment carried out to modify the properties in entire volume of material (annealing, hardening, tempering)
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Heat Treatment of Steels

Conventional heat treatment procedures for producing
martensitic steels involves

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continuous and rapid cooling of an austenitized specimen

in some type of quenching medium, such as water, oil, or air

The optimum properties of a steel that has been quenched and

then tempered can be realized only if,

during the quenching heat treatment, the specimen has

been converted to a high content of martensite

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Non-uniform Cooling Rate during Quenching

During the quenching treatment, it is impossible to cool the specimen at a uniform rate
throughout

the surface will always cool more rapidly than interior

regions.

The austenite will transform over a range of temperatures,

yielding a possible variation of microstructure & properties with position within a specimen.

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Heat Treatments of Steels (Contd)

The successful heat treating of steels to produce a predominantly martensite microstructure throughout the cross section depends mainly on three factors: 1. the composition of the alloy 2. the type and character of the quenching medium 3. the size and shape of the specimen

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TTT Diagrams

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Full TTT Diagram

The complete TTT diagram for an ironcarbon alloy of eutectoid composition.
A: austenite B: bainite M: martensite P: pearlite

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Microconstituents vs. Cooling Rate

Spheroidite: Spherical globs of Fe3C in Ferrite Pearlite: Layers of ferrite and Fe3C
Course Pearlite Fine Pearlite In creasing Cooling Rate

Bainite: 200 500 C Transformation Martensite: Rapid Cooling

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Bainite
Upper (550-350C) Rods of Fe3C Lower (350-250C) Fe3C Precipitates in Plates of Ferrite It is still Ferrite and Cementite! Its just acicular.

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Slow Cooling

Time in region indicates amount of microconstituent!

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Medium Cooling

Cooling Rate, R, is Change in Temp / Time C/s

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Fast Cooling

This steel is very hardenable 100% Martensite in ~ 1 minute of cooling!

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What is Tempering?
Martensite needs to be tempered to get better ductility. This happens when Fe3C is allowed to precipitate from the supercooled Martensite.

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What About Cooling Rates?

Faster cooling gives non-equilibrium microconstituents
Bainite Martensite And more!

To know what microconstituents are present, you must look at cooling curve diagrams

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Microconstituents Vs. Cooling Rate

Spheroidite: Spherical globs of Fe3C in Ferrite Pearlite: Layers of ferrite and Fe3C
In creasing Cooling Rate Course Pearlite Fine Pearlite

Bainite: 200 500 C Transformation Martensite: Rapid Cooling

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Temperature

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Austenite Austenite + Ferrite

723 o C
Water or oil cooling Air cooling Furnace cooling

Heat treatment

Quench hardening Strength

Normalizing

Annealing

Austempering

Isothermal Spheroidizing annealing annealing Machinability Cold forgeability Ferrite + Pearlite Ferrite + spheroidized cementite Bolt, ball joint
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Purpose Micro structure

Machinability

Machinability

Strength, toughness Bainite

Martensite Ferrite+Pearlite

Ferrite+ Pearlite

Parts

Con-rod, streeing knuckle

Transmission gear, drive pinion

Spring

Transmission gear, drive, pinion

Time

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Summary
Ferrous alloys and its classification, Iron-Iron Carbide diagram, AISI/SAE and UNS designation Systems Review of carbon steels and stainless steels categories and properties Cast iron and its types Heat treatment of Steels Thank you
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