×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Cast Iron or Cast Steel, How do you tell?

Cast Iron or Cast Steel, How do you tell?

Cast Iron or Cast Steel, How do you tell?

(OP)
Hello,

I am frequently asked to repair castings via welding or brazing and I do not know of a way to distinquish between a cast iron and cast steel casting.

Does anyone have a way to tell if a casting is made of steel or iron?

Thanks in advance for your help.

krue0101

RE: Cast Iron or Cast Steel, How do you tell?

You can distinguish gray cast iron from cast steel by hitting the casting with a hammer. The steel casting will ring; the gray cast iron will not. However, you can't use this method to distinguish ductile cast iron from steel.

RE: Cast Iron or Cast Steel, How do you tell?

If you have to grind out the crack for the repair, observe the sparks. Don't know about the newer books, but many old books had the spark appearance pictures in them.

RE: Cast Iron or Cast Steel, How do you tell?

If you are doing any weld repairs you should remove a small piece and have it sent to a metallurgical lab for chemical analysis.

If I was going to do any weld repair, you need to know what you are working with, period. As a side note, the chemical analysis would also tell you if it is a CI versus cast steel, based on carbon and Si contents. Also, if the material is even weldable.

RE: Cast Iron or Cast Steel, How do you tell?

I'm going to come out with some old timer type test.

With a very sharp small chisel get on a square edge and try to remove a thin chip using a very low angle on the chisel. It the chip curls or stay in on piece it is CS or DI. Cast iron will not form a chip.

I would run a weldability test, mainly for CI,  by welding a small 1/4" 2x2 vertical tag to an inconspicuous area. After welding allow to cool and break the tag off the hard way, hitting from the weld side. If the tag bends you have a weldable material and it the weld cups out be very careful about welding.

Look at the raised letters on the casting and if you see WXX you probably have CS. CI not normally marked can have CI XX. somewhere.

As posted above sparking is a good way to help differentiate the materials.  Get yourself a know piece of CI and CS and with a clean wheel look at the sparks, preferably in dim light.  Let the wheel self clean itself on either part before comparing.  

Learned a long time age that welding CI is art not welding. Use brush strokes, don't go for the penetration.
 

 

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources