Effects of Ceramic Fibre Insulation Thickness on Skin Formation and Nodule Characteristics of Thin Wall Ductile Iron Casting

Skin formation has become one of the problems in the thin wall ductile iron casting because it will reduce the mechanical properties of the materials. One of the solutions to reduce this skin formation is by using heat insulator to control the cooling rate. One of the insulators used for this purpose is ceramic fibre. In this research, the thickness of the ceramic fibre heat insulator used in the mould was varied, i.e. 50 mm on one side and 37.5 mm on the other side (A), no heat insulator (B), and 37.5 mm on both sides (C). After the casting process, the results were characterized in terms of metallography by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and tensile test for mechanical properties. The results showed that the skin thickness formed in A is 34.21 μm, 23.38 μm in B, and 27.78 μm in C. The nodule count in A is 541.98 nodule/mm² (84.7%) with an average diameter of 15.14 μm, 590 nodule/mm² (86.7%) with an average diameter of 13.18 μm in B, and 549.73 nodule/mm2 (87.2%) with an average diameter of 13.95 μm in C. The average ultimate tensile strength for A was 399 MPa, B was 314 MPa, and C was 415 MPa. Microstructural examination under SEM showed that the materials have a ductile fracture with matrix full of ferrite.