Effect of phenomena accompanying wear in dry corundum abrasive on the properties and microstructure of austempered ductile iron with different chemical composition

The research described in this article is a fragment in the series of published works trying to determine the applicability of new materials for parts of the mining machinery. Tests were performed on two groups of austempered ductile iron - one of which contained 1.5% Ni and 0.5% Mo, while the other contained 1.9% Ni and 0.9% Cu. Each group has been heat treated according to the three different heat treatment variants and then the material was subjected to detailed testing of mechanical properties and abrasion wear resistance, measuring also hardness and magnetic properties, and conducting microstructural examinations. The results indicated that each of the tested materials was senstive to the surface hardening effect, which resulted in high wear resistance. It has been found that high temperature of austempering, i.e. 370°C, favours high wear resistance of ductile iron containing nickel and molybdenum. Low temperature of austempering, i.e. 270°C, develops high wear resistance in ductile iron containing nickel and copper. Both these materials offer completely different mechanical properties and as such can be used for different and specific applications.