Effect of Microstructure on Impact Fatigue Resistance and Impact Wear Resistance of Medium Cr-Si Cast Iron

A great amount of iron grinding balls in tube mills have been consumed. Under this impact abrasive wear working condition, the failure of wear resistant alloying white irons grinding balls is mainly caused by fatigue spalling. The impact wear resistance of martensitic high chromium cast iron (Cr of 15%) is not high sometimes, but its cost is not low. Thus, medium Cr-Si wear resistant cast iron is recommended. The influence of the iron on impact fatigue resistance and impact wear resistance is pronounced. Ball-on-ball impact fatigue test and high stress impact wear test of the grinding balls have been carried out. The results show that the impact fatigue resistance (IFR) and impact wear resistance (IWR) of medium Cr-Si cast iron are superior to those of martensitic high chromium cast iron (Cr of 15%). The main reasons are that (1) the stress in medium Cr-Si cast iron is released in the as-cast state; (2) the matrix is fine pearlite with better toughness and plasticity; (3) the pearlite is more stable compared with a retained austenite under repeated impact load and less phase transformation can take place; (4) high silicon content improves the morphology of eutectic carbide; (5) there is no secondary carbide which results in less crack sources. All these factors are beneficial to improvement of impact fatigue spalling resistance. The eutectic carbide M7C3 is the main constituent to resist wear.