Variation of tensile properties of high silicon ductile iron

The casting processes are characterized by complex relationships between predictors and responses. It is the fundamental understanding of these complex relationships that often involves hundreds of factors, which improves quality without losing productivity and raising cost. In this work, cast solid solution strengthened ferritic spheroidal graphite irons GJS-500-14 and GJS-600-10 (EN 1563:2012) have been evaluated. These materials offer stronger components with good machinability owing to their even hardness properties. In this case the predictors are chemical composition, gating layout, foundry set-up, testing procedure and equipment etc. and the responses are the tensile properties (Rp0.2, Rm, A5). Here 200 tensile specimens compiled from industrial foundry melts from over 30 years of research have created a state-of-the-art platform for statistical engineering in order to perform Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and data visualization. This statistical platform has provided new insight on how foundries should treat complex relationships between predictors and responses in order to identify sources of variation and interaction effects