Influence of Mo in the structure of rapidly solidified Fe–Mo–Cr–Mn–Si–C alloy

Abstract

An Fe–Mo–Cr–Mn–Si–C alloy was prepared in an induction furnace and was cast into cylindrical rod in a copper mould in castmatic equipment (low pressure casting). A single phase non-equilibrium featureless (no visible microstructures after deep etching) phase was observed over a certain range of thickness of the rod. In this present work, the extent of the featureless phase was studied with different concentrations of Mo (5–25 wt-%) for 5·5 mm diameter of cylindrical rod at a cooling rate of 1100 K s^–1. Light optical microscopy, scanning electron Microscopy and Vickers hardness tests were used to analyse the samples. The amount of the featureless area varies as the Mo content changes and the maximum featureless area was obtained for 7 wt-% of Mo. This single phase featureless structure exhibits very high hardness (>1350 HV) which can be used in many interesting applications with or without suitable heat treatments.