The proposed overall program will complete the understanding of how age strengthening affects machinability so that foundries may be able to utilize the strength improvement with age strengthening to cast equivalent grades at higher CE, lower alloy or lower pearlite content without the requirement to hold castings before machining. The objective of the proposed work is to explain the mechanism by which age strengthening changes the machinability of graphitic cast irons to investigate ductile irons.

Little is known about age strengthening effects on machinability of ductile iron. It has been shown that age hardening of the free ferrite microstructure component of ductile iron exceeds the tensile strength increase of the bulk material. Work with ductile iron would not only provide information specific to ductile iron but could shed light on the general mechanism for age-strengthening effects on machinability in graphitic cast irons due to the larger amount of free ferrite that can be obtained in as cast alloys such as 65-45-12.

Status Update: The project phase investigating ductile iron is just starting. MS&T has developed a practice for producing the ductile specimens in-house in a lab foundry. Those interested in the work of this project or committee should contact Prof. Von Richards, Missouri University of Science and Technology, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .