As Cast ductile iron Crankshafts with improved mechanical properties

Current understanding about the influence of several alloying elements on mechanical properties of steels and cast irons and more precisely on ductile cast irons is still incomplete. On the other hand, an increasing demand to develop innovative and cheap cast iron alloys with improved mechanical properties and potential application on high performance components is also observed. Crankshafts used to manufacture high-power engines for big vehicles are a proper example of this demand. The present work is devoted to study the effect of several chemical alloying elements on the structural and mechanical properties of fully pearlitic ductile cast irons. An optimized combination of C, Si, Cu, Mn Mo and Cr contents has leaded to develop a new methodology for preparing as-cast ductile irons with more homogeneous matrices, tensile strength values even higher than 1000 MPa and elongation values higher than 4%.