Third Report of the Research Committee on High-Duty Cast Irons for General Engineering Purposes

Abstract

The Third Report was originally projected as the Second Report,† but the necessity of making use, under war conditions, of the most readily available indigenous ores, caused the Committee to concentrate immediate work on the influence of phosphorus upon mechanical properties. The Second Report has already dealt with the influence of this element on the properties of the plain cast irons, whilst the Addendum to the Second Report‡ covers the alloyed cast irons.

The Third Report contains in Part 1 further results on commercially made high-duty cast iron, i.e. those equivalent in properties to, or better than, grade 2 of British Standard Specification No. 786 (1938), and in Part 2 the results of the remainder of the experimental programme concerning alloy cast irons, showing the influence of additions of nickel, copper, chromium, and molybdenum, both severally and in various combinations, on certain selected compositions. Both parts of this Report refer to the machinable engineering cast irons, having a pearlitic structure with normal flake graphite, covered by class 11 of the classification§ given in the Reports on Special-Duty Cast Irons. The more recently developed so-called acicular cast irons, showing excellent mechanical properties, do not fall within this category, and are being made the subject of experimental work.