THE USE OF THERMAL ANALYSIS FOR PROCESS CONTROL IN CAST IRON FOUNDRY

Thermal Analysis (TA) has been used since long time to measure equilibrium temperature (Tliquidus and Teutecticum) in order to evaluate Si and C content in cast iron. In the most recent applications, the analysis of solidification curves and their derivatives can be used to characterize the melt solidification, in order to forecast microstructure and/or solidification defects (porosity, shrinkage), as well as to optimise the inoculation and spheroidisation processes can be achieved with the use of TA as an experimental tool. Furthermore, process control is one of the most promising application of Thermal analysis. TA can detect “out of control” condition, or evaluate at every time the proper quantity of final inoculant. The application of TA to production processes in a foundry of gray and ductile iron is reported in this paper.