Wear of white cast irons by impact of direct reduced iron pellets

A series of eight experimental white iron castings were subjected to the impact of direct reduced iron pellets at a temperature of 550 °C. The samples were cast in permanent moulds following an experimental design in which the ratio of chromium to carbon equivalent, the amount of molybdenum and that of vanadium plus titanium were varied each in two different levels. It was found that the amount of material removed from the samples was related to the chemical composition of the alloys, in such a way that the samples with the higher amounts of molybdenum were the ones that exhibit higher wear. It was observed that the samples that exhibited a high resistance to erosion were those in which the eutectic aggregate had a fine distribution, and with a high proportion of the pre-eutectic carbides above 500 μm2. A mechanism that relates these experimental observations is proposed.