Malleable cast iron

 

 

Malleable iron starts as a white iron casting that is then heat treated at about 900 °C (1,650 °F). Graphite separates out much more slowly in this case, so that surface tension has time to form it into  spheroidal  particles  rather  than  flakes.  Due  to  their  lower  aspect  ratio,  spheroids  are relatively short and far from one another, and have a lower cross section vis-a-vis a propagating crack or phonon. They also have blunt boundaries, as opposed to flakes, which alleviates the stress concentration problems faced by grey cast iron. In general, the properties of malleable cast iron are more like mild steel. There is a limit to how large a part can be cast in malleable iron, since it is made from white cast iron.