The effects of boro-tempering heat treatment on microstructural properties of ductile iron

In this study, the effects of boro-tempering heat treatment on microstructural properties of ductile iron were investigated. Test samples with dimensions of 10 × 10 × 55 mm were boronized at 900 °C for 1, 3 and 5 h and then tempered at four different temperatures (250, 300, 350 and 450 °C) for 1 h. Both optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to reveal the microstructural details of coating and matrix of boro-tempered ductile iron. X-ray diffraction was used to determine the constituents of the coating layer. The boride layer formed on the surface of boro-tempered ductile cast iron is tooth shape form and consisted of FeB and Fe₂B phases. The thickness of boride layer increases as the boronizing time increases and tempering temperature decreases. Tempering temperature is more effective than boronizing time on the matrix structure. Boro-tempering heat treatment reduces the formation of lower and upper ausferritic matrix temperature according to classical austempering. This causes formation of upper ausferritic matrix in the sample when tempered at 300 °C. This is in contrast to general case which is the formation of lower ausferritic matrix via austempering at this temperature.