iron and steel castings
A Brief Note on the Technical Differences Between Iron Castings and Steel Castings

By vr foundries on 5-December-2019

Both Iron castings as well as Steel castings has its own industry applications in a number of verticals. But technically there are a lot of factors that differentiate Iron Castings from Steel Castings. This short blog brings you the technical differences between Iron castings and steel castings:
  • Carbon concentration in steel is uniform however much it is subjected to heat treatment cycle, unless any attempt is made to intentionally change its content.
  • This said the presence of graphite particles in any cast iron makes the matrix to vary from 1 to 1.7 percent according to the thermal history of casting. 
  • The solidification of steel takes place as a single-phase solid, whilst the same process in the case of iron is through a eutectic process. This means the Iron solidifies as a two-phased solid.
  • The solute distribute in Iron and Steel with different solidification methods will change the carbon kinetic in Iron.
  • Silicon is (in several cases, with the exception of few electrical applications) quite detrimental when it is present in a steel casting.
  • Nonetheless, Silicon content is available in Iron as it plays a major role in developing ausferrite matrix via its formation of bainitic carbide that offers Iron its excellent physical properties.