EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

The article deals with issues related to the phenomenon of pre-inoculation of liquid cast iron as one of the key stages of preparation of high quality cast iron. The theoretical part includes a review of available literature on this subject, discusses basic concepts associated with graphite nucleation concerning the pre-inoculation mechanism. It describes the method of measurement of metallurgical quality of liquid cast iron using thermal analysis. The research part presents the results of tests involving the use of selected pre-inoculants as efficient additives to liquid cast iron, which improve the metallurgical quality, in particular, stabilize certain indicators recorded on the cooling and crystallization curve concerning standard melting technology used in the foundry. Comparison melting was carried out with the use of pre-inoculants, and the results were related to standard melting technology (without the use of pre-inoculants). An assessment was performed covering the parameters recorded on the cooling curves, mechanical properties, as well as the microstructure, mainly quantities and volumes of graphite precipitations as the main criterion of assessment of the efficiency of the pre-inoculation process. Based on the obtained results, conclusion regarding suitability of pre-inoculation process in certain conditions related to the degree of nucleation of the base cast iron were drawn up.