This document provides information on various types of cast iron:
- White cast iron forms massive carbides when iron cools rapidly, making it very hard but brittle. It is used for abrasion resistance.
- Grey cast iron contains flake graphite in a matrix, giving it good machinability and vibration damping. It is widely used for machine parts.
- Ductile or nodular cast iron has graphite in spherical nodules, making it much more ductile than grey cast iron. It has applications in machinery.
- Malleable cast iron and spheroidal graphite cast iron undergo heat treatments to form irregular graphite clusters, resulting in properties between ductile iron and steel.