Influence of Rare Earth Metals on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of G20Mn5 Cast Steel

The paper describes influence of rare earth metals (REMs) on G20Mn5 cast steel microstructure and mechanical properties. The cerium mixture of the following composition was used to modify cast steel: 49.8% Ce, 21.8% La, 17.1% Nd, 5,5% Pr and 5.35% of REMs. Cast steel was melted in industrial conditions. Two melts of non-modified and modified cast steel were made. Test ingots were subject to heat treatment by hardening (920°C/water) and tempering (720°C/air). Heat treatment processes were also performed in industrial conditions. After cutting flashes off samples of cast steel were collected with purpose to analyze chemical composition, a tensile test and impact toughness tests were conducted and microstructure was subject to observations. Modification with use of mischmetal did not cause significant changes in cast steel tensile strength and yield strength, while higher values were detected for fractures in the Charpy impact test, as they were twice as high as values for the data included in the PN-EN 10213:2008 standard. Observations performed by means of light and scanning microscopy proved occurrence of significant differences in grain dimensions and morphology of non-metallic inclusions. Adding REMs resulted in grain fragmentation and transformed inclusion shapes to rounded ones. Chemical composition analyses indicated that round inclusions in modified cast steel were generally oxysulphides containing cerium and lanthanum. In the paper the author proved positive influence of modification on G20Mn5 cast steel mechanical properties.