A Study of Effects of Precipitation Hardening of Low-Alloy Copper-Nickel Spheroidal Cast Iron

One type of spheroidal cast iron, with additions of 0.51% Cu and 0.72% Ni, was subjected to precipitation hardening. Assuming that the greatest increase in hardness after the shortest time of ageing is facilitated by chemical homogenisation and fragmentation of cast iron grain matrix, precipitation hardening after pre-normalisation was executed. Hardness (HB), microhardness (HV), qualitative and quantitative metalographic (LM, SEM) and X-ray structural (XRD) tests were performed. The acquired result of 13.2% increase in hardness after ca. 5-hour ageing of pre-normalised cast iron confirmed the assumption.