Quality and properties of the cast iron produced on the steel scrap base

Purpose: The goal of the article is to show the issue of the cast iron melting on the steel scrap base only (with no pig iron in charge). The particular interest was focused on the charging material chemical composition influence on the particular elements content in produced cast iron and its quality, too. Design/methodology/approach: The grey cast iron melting on the steel scrap base and recarburizers (anthracite, natural and synthetic graphite, petroleum coke) was conducted to achieve the goals of the experiments. The chemical composition, mechanical properties and microstructure was tested for each melt. Melting was conducted in inductive furnace of 20kg capacity. Findings: The experiments drawn to the conclusions that cast iron melted on the steel scrap base contains less impurities (sulfur and phosphorus) than this melted on the pig iron base. During the results further analysis the relationship between carburizer grade and both mechanical properties and microstructure of the produced cast iron was proved (microstructure heredity). Research limitations/implications: To finally prove the hypothesis regarding the microstructure heredity given in the article, further researches should be carried out with the anthracite use as a carburizer. Practical implications: The results achieved suggest that when anthracite is used as a carburizer it is possible to increase mechanical properties with no necessity of changing other process parameters. Regarding the fact that the anthracite is relatively cheap carburizer it may cause in consequence less expensive production along with the cast iron quality parameters increase. Originality/value: The issue of the materials microstructure heredity is not widely described in the literature and the experiments results presented in the article allow to create the hypothesis that this phenomenon is present in the metal alloys.