Effect of antimony and cerium on the formation of chunky graphite during solidification of heavy-section castings of near-eutectic spheroidal graphite irons

Thermal analysis is applied to the study of the formation of chunky graphite (CHG) in heavy-section castings of spheroidal graphite cast irons. To that aim, near-eutectic melts prepared in one single cast house were poured into molds containing up to four large cubic blocks 30 cm in size. Four melts have been prepared and cast that had a cerium content varying in relation with the spheroidizing alloy used. Postinoculation or addition of antimony was achieved by fixing appropriate amounts of materials in the gating system of each block. Cooling curves recorded in the center of the blocks show that solidification proceeds in three steps: a short primary deposition of graphite followed by an initial and then a bulk eutectic reaction. Formation of CHG could be unambiguously associated with increased recalescence during the bulk eutectic reaction. While antimony strongly decreases the amount of CHG, it appears that the ratio of the contents in antimony and cerium should be higher than 0.8 in order to avoid this graphite degeneracy.