Castings by virtue of their manufacturing process route are prone to induce various defects which are likely to affect adversely during its service life, causing pre-mature failures. Multiple destructive and non-destructive evaluation techniques are practiced to analyze these defects and suitable measures are taken to ensure quality castings and avoid pre-mature failures. Accurate detection for each type of defect is key factor during analysis to adopt desired modifications in process and /or product stage.
The quality of sound castings is sensitive to multiple factors starting from raw material chemical composition to mold design, pouring temperature conditions and so on Scanning electron microscopy along with EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy) presents promising tool to analyze these defects with various parameters i.e. defect sizes, shapes & morphology, elemental composition at defect area and examination of defect appearance by SE (Secondary) and BSE (Backscattered) electron modes under high and low vacuum to clearly distinguish each feature of defect. Apart from these advantages, this technique takes liberty of examining defects at very high magnifications to analyze smallest features and conduct elemental compositional analysis to identify the type of defect.
This paper describes analysis of few casting defects observed in grey cast iron by EDS technique. Emphasis is given to showcase prominent benefits of using this technique to ensure correct identification of defect to adopt proper remedial action during casting process.