A partnership cast in iron

Cast Iron Metallurgy

Cast iron (CI) is one of the oldest materials in commercial use. It has excellent compressive strength and is commonly used for structures that require this property, as well as for water and sewer lines. This article explains CI metallurgy and why the understanding of this metallurgy is key to understanding other ferrous materials and alloys. The composition of cast iron (CI) varies significan...

Cast iron component failure: A metallurgical investigation

A fractured nutcracker was examined for determining the root cause/s for premature fracture/failure. This is one of the common tools used typically for cracking hard nuts. In this study, metallurgical failure analysis techniques namely, visual inspection, optical microscopy, SEM, and hardness tests were used in investigating the broken product. From the metallurgical analysis, it was determined...

Circumferential failures in grey cast iron pipes

Gray cast-iron water pipe metallurgy

The results of a metallographic study of grey cast iron water pipes are reported. These pipes had been installed between 1885 and 1973 in eight different water systems. Each pipe had been extracted during scheduled maintenance or failure repairs to provide data for a larger study to produce a methodology for determining the residual life of grey cast iron pipes. This metallographic study was co...

Cast Iron: A Solid Choice for Reducing Gear Noise

Robert O'Rourke is a product engineering manager with the Dura-Bar division of Wells Manufacturing Company (Woodstock, IL), which introduced continuous cast iron to the North American market in 1961. He can be reached at (800) 227-6455 or by email at rorourke @wellsmanufacturing.com. Material selection can play an important role in the constant battle to reduce gear noise. Specifying tighter d...