Abstract
The effects of Si content on the variation of microstructure and processing window of austempered ductile cast iron were investigated. Four different Si contents between 2.42 and 3.37 wt.% were used. The influence of silicon on the microstructure and processing window of these materials were studied. Austenitizing was performed at $900^{\circ}C$ for 60min and austempering temperature were both $340^{\circ}C$ and $360^{\circ}C$ and austempering time were for 4min upto 119min and for 5min upto 160min respectively. After heat treatment, the evolution of stage I and stage II were performed by optical metallography, XRD, hardness test. The results showed that $t_2$ was delayed as Si contents was increased due to the fact that Si retarded the formation of cementite ($Fe_3C$). The high silicon content promoted the stability of the metastable two-phase combination of austenite and ausferrite.
