Characteristics of tempering response of austempered ductile iron

Austempered ductile iron (ADI) is produced by an isothermal heat treatment. Tempering is an effective method to increase the toughness and decrease the hardness of ADI. In the present research, the transformation of ADI was investigated after applying various tempering temperatures. The hardness of ADI samples with and without tempering was measured and the microstructure of ADI samples was analyzed by using metallographic optical microscopy. It was found that the ausferrite decomposed into dispersive cementite particles above a tempering temperature of 538 °C. Thus, the tempering process for ADI must be carefully selected so that the excellent properties of ADI are not degraded.