The present study highlights the effect of the cooling rate on the microstructure formation of Si–Mo ductile iron. In this study, experiments were carried out for castings with different wall thicknesses (i.e., 3, 5, 13, and 25 mm) to achieve various cooling rates. The simulation of the cooling and solidification was performed through MAGMASOFT to correlate the cooling conditions with the microstructure. The phase diagram of the investigated alloy was calculated using Thermo-Calc, whereas the quantitative metallography analyses using scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy were performed to describe the graphite nodules and metallic matrix morphologies. The present study provides insights into the effect of the cooling rate on the graphite nodule count, nodularity, and volumetric fractions of graphite and ferrite as well as the average ferritic grain size of thin-walled and reference Si–Mo ductile iron castings. The study shows that the cooling rates of castings vary within a wide range (27 °C–1.5 °C/s) when considering wall thicknesses of 3 to 25 mm. The results also suggest that the occurrence of pearlite and carbides are related to segregations during solidification rather than to cooling rates at the eutectoid temperature. Finally, the present study shows that the longitudinal ultrasonic wave velocity is in linear dependence with the number of graphite nodules of EN-GJS-SiMo45-6 ductile iron.

The article presents the research on the impact of slide burnishing process carried out with use of various ceramics on friction and wear of steel elements. In addition, surfaces after grinding, lapping and polishing processes were tested. The tribological couple was made of steel discs, toughened to a hardness of 40 ± 2 HRC, and balls made of 100Cr6 steel with a hardness of 62 HRC. The tests were carried out at three sliding speeds: 0.16 m/s, 0.32 m / s and 0.48 m/s. The research proved the possibility of improving selected tribological properties of friction pairs thanks to the use of slide burnishing process and also allowed to establish a number of relationships between the parameters characterizing the surface topography and the tribological parameters.

Elaborated shapes of many car components are the reason for which the use of casting techniques to fabricate them is a solution well founded from the economical point of view. Currently applicable regulatory requirements concerning emissions of exhaust fumes force the carmakers to reduce the overall weight of their products, as this is a basic precondition for reducing fuel consumption. As a result, newly launched car models contain a continuously increasing share of thin-walled castings made of materials which ensure a satisfactory level of service properties. At the same time, developing new technological processes allowing to extend the service life of individual components by means of surface improving becomes more and more important.

The research reported in the paper concerned the conditions of cooling high-chromium cast iron with about 15% Cr content capable to ensure completeness of transformation of supercooled austenite into martensite in order to obtain high hardness value of the material and thus its high resistance to abrasive wear. For testing, castings were prepared with dimensions 120 mm × 100 mm × 15 mm cast in sand molds in which one of cavity surfaces was reproduced with chills. From the castings, specimens for dilatometric tests were taken with dimensions 4 mm × 4 mm × 16 mm and plates with dimensions 50 mm × 50 mm × 15 mm for heat treatment tests. The dilatometric specimens were cut out from areas subject to interaction with the chill. The austenitizing temperature and time were 1000 °C and 30 min, respectively. Dilatograms of specimens quenched in liquid nitrogen were used to determine martensite transformation start and finish temperatures T_Ms and T_Mf, whereas from dilatograms of specimens quenched in air and in water, only T_Ms was red out. To secure completeness of the course of transformation of supercooled austenite into martensite and reveal the transformation finish temperature, it was necessary to continue cooling of specimens in liquid nitrogen. It has been found that T_Ms depended strongly on the quenching method whereas T_Mf values were similar for each of the adopted cooling conditions. The examined cooling variants were used to develop a heat treatment process allowing to obtain hardness of 68 HRC.

The paper concerns modeling the microstructure of a hypereutectic aluminum-silicon alloy developed by the authors with the purpose of application for automobile cylinder liners showing high resistance to abrasive wear at least equal to that of cast-iron liners. With the use of the nanoindentation method, material properties of intermetallic phases and matrix in a hypereutectic Al-Si alloy containing Mn, Cu, Cr, Ni, V, Fe, and Mg as additives were examined. The scanning electron microscope equipped with an adapter for chemical composition microanalysis was used to determine the chemical composition of intermetallics and of the alloy matrix. Intermetallic phases, such as Al(Fe,Mn,M)Si, Al(Cr,V,M)Si, AlFeSi, AlFeNiM, AlCuNi, Al₂Cu, and Mg₂Si, including those supersaturated with various alloying elements (M), were identified based on results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests and microanalysis of chemical composition carried out with the use of X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Shapes of the phases included regular, irregular, or elongated polygons. On the disclosed intermetallic phases, silicon precipitations, the matrix, values of the indentation hardness (H_IT), and the indentation modulus (E_IT) were determined by performing nanoindentation tests with the use of a Nanoindentation Tester NHT (CSM Instruments) equipped with a Berkovich B-L 32 diamond indenter. The adopted maximum load value was 20 mN.