Grey iron casting

The cast iron is an iron material which has a high graphite carbon content and thus assumes its characteristic gray color. The material is hard and brittle but has good thermal conductivity, advantageous damping properties and excellent compressive strength.
Grey casting is usually produced as cast iron with lamellar graphite and has excellent casting properties as well as a high cost efficiency. The material is used across the industry to produce components with high wear resistance requirements.

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What is cast iron?

The most common type of cast iron is cast iron with laminated graphite. This variety is characterized in that the graphite carbons are present in the form of thin, irregular lamellas. In the structure of the grey cast iron, these lamellae act like notches and thereby give the material its characteristic properties: While the tensile strength is comparatively low, cast iron scores a very high compressive strength.

Casting - casting process at EMG Casting AG

According to DIN EN 1561, gray cast iron is also abbreviated as GJL, where the individual letters have the following meanings:
G = Cast material
J = Iron
L = Lamellar
The lamellae form three-dimensional harassment in the cast iron and thus provide a very low stretchability on one side, but on the other side also a high wear resistance and a good casting capability. At the same time, the notch effect in the gray cast iron ensures that components made of gray cast iron are not susceptible to structurally caused external notches. In contrast to cast steel, the material is therefore very suitable for applications with vibrational stress.

What types of grey cast iron are there?

In the production of cast iron with lamellar graphite, the mechanical properties of the end product can be changed by varying the process parameters according to requirements. The most widely used variants of cast iron are briefly presented below with their most important technical data:

Designation according to DIN EN 1561	Unit	EN-GJL-150	EN-GJL-200	EN-GJL-250	EN-GJL-300	EN-GJL-350
Tensile strength	N/mm²	150 – 250	200 – 300	250 – 350	300 – 400	350 – 450
Brinell hardness	HB 30	160 – 190	180 – 220	190 – 230	200 – 240	210 – 250
Bending strength	N/mm²	250	290	340	390	490
Fracture toughness	N/mm²	320	400	480	560	650

In addition to the grey cast iron with graphite carbon, a so-called white cast iron is also produced. This is also an iron material in which the carbon is present as a carbide in the form of cementite (Fe C). The material can be seen from its characteristic white fracture surfaces.

The cast iron with spherical graphite (GJS) comparable with cast iron is also referred to as sphero casting and has better mechanical properties. The graphite is present in this material in spherical form, since the melt is desulphurized shortly before casting. Cast iron with spherical graphite is suitable, due to its mechanical properties, for example, for pipelines in the centrifugal casting process.

In addition, the so-called tempering casting is also related to the gray casting. This material is distinguished by the fact that it is subjected to an annealing treatment after solidification and thus also slight plastic deformations are possible. Depending on the glowing process, it is distinguished between white and black tempering.

What is grey cast iron suitable for and where are the advantages?

Cast iron with lamellar graphite can be not only excellently cast, but also particularly easy to process. The iron-carbon casting alloy is therefore one of the most used casting products and is used in many different industries for the production of components with high wear resistance. Some of the typical products at a glance:

Gear housing
Cylinder blocks
Machine beds
brake discs
Pallets
Frame
Light poles
Channel construction

Parts of cast iron

The advantages of cast iron at a glance:

In comparison with other, less well castable materials such as steel, grey cast iron is distinguished by some advantages:

High corrosion resistance
Economic production
High compression strength
Insensitivity to external notches
High design strength with vibrational stress
High wear resistance
Excellent casting properties

Casting process at EMG Casting AG

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