Peritectic Determination by a Melt Deck Thermal Analysis System

There has been a growing interest in the peritectic due to increasing productivity, quality, and alloy development. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) has traditionally been used to study steel solidification but suffers significant limitations when measuring the solidus and peritectic. This work covers a new thermal analysis system that can characterize the peritectic reaction. Heats of AISI/SAE 1030 and 4130 steel were poured to provide some benchmarking of this new technique. The peritectic was detected and the reaction temperature measured. Measurements agree reasonably well with reference information. A review of the literature and thermodynamic calculations did find some disagreement on the exact temperatures for the peritectic and solidus. Some of this difference appears to be related to the experimental techniques employed. It was determined that the system developed accurately indicates these reaction temperatures. The system provides a unique method for examining steel solidification that can be employed on the melt deck.