Participation of AZTERLAN at the 125 MetalCasting Congress (USA)

Dr. Gorka Alonso has presented the research work “Effect of the type of inoculant on the shrinkage porosity of High Silicon Spheroidal Graphite Iron” within the official program of this international Congress, referential in the field of foundry technologies.

The researcher from AZTERLAN Technology Centre has shared the results of this remarkable endeavour with a close industrial orientation, aimed at analysing and validating the efficiency of commercial inoculants to minimise the micro-porosity effect in high-silicon cast iron components.

As explained by Dr. Alonso, who is an expert in the field of iron solidification mechanisms, high-silicon spheroidal graphite irons (SG) present significant challenges to the production of sound castings as it is particularly susceptible to significant shrinkage defects. “The most critical phase is by the end of the solidification as the amount of eutectic graphite generated decreases, graphite expansion may become insufficient to compensate the solidification shrinkage increasing the risk of micro shrinkage formation”. The use of inoculants helps to minimise the formation of micro porosities. That is why “we have performed a broad study to evaluate the efficiency of different commercial inoculants in a 3.45%C, 3.75%Si SG iron”.

During his presentation, Dr. Alonso has presented the main conclusions obtained as a result of the different analysis carried out by the research team, such as “Metallographic analysis to evaluate the nodule count and size distribution, SEM analysis to study the type of nuclei and tomographic characterizations to quantify the amount of porosity in the different samples”. There has been as well a correlation of the graphite formation rate during eutectic solidification with the porosity level.

The research has been developed in the collaboration framework established by AZTERLAN Metallurgy Research Centre and Dr. Emeritus Prof. Doru M. Stefanescu (Ohio State University and Alabama University).

Presentation of Dr. Gorka Alonso (AZTERLAN) in the online platform of 125 MetalCasting Congress (American Foundry Society).