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Austempered
Ductile Iron Microstructure -- Austenitized 950°C, austempered 350°C
for 64 min
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But
a specific type of cast iron (austempered ductile iron - ADI) offers performance
and cost advantages that need to be considered.
The term
"cast iron" designates an entire family of metals with a wide
variety of properties. Cast iron contains more than 2% carbon, present as
a distinct graphite phase.
In ductile
cast iron the graphite occurs as spheroids or spherulites rather than as individual flakes as in gray iron.
Ductile iron exhibits a linear stress-strain relation, a considerable range of yield strengths, and, as its name implies, ductility.
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"Austempering" is a high
performance heat treatment for ferrous alloys which produces an
engineered, tailorable matrix structure.
This austempered matrix structure gives tensile strength,
toughness, impact strength and fatigue properties that are comparable to
heat-treated steels.
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