Metal alloys with matrix based on an Fe-Al system are generally considered materials for high-temperature applications. Their main advantages are compact crystallographic structure, long-range ordering and structural stability at high temperatures. These materials are based on an intermetallic phase of FeAl or Fe3Al, which is stable in the range from room temperature up to the melting point of 1240°C. Their application at high temperatures is also beneficial because of the low cost of production, very good resistance to oxidation and corrosion, and high mechanical strength. The casting alloy the structure of which includes the FeAl phase is, among others, highaluminium cast iron. This study has been devoted to the determination of the effect of vanadium and titanium on the transformation of the high-aluminium cast iron structure into an in-situ FeAl-VC composite.

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The modification is a widespread method of improving the strength properties of cast iron. The impact in terms of increasing amounts of eutectic grains has been thoroughly studied while the issue of the impact on the mechanical properties of primary austenite grains has not been studied in depth yet. The paper presents the study of both aspects. The methodology was to conduct the melting cast iron with flake graphite, then modifying the alloy by two sets of modifiers: the commercial modifier, and a mixture of iron powder with a commercial inoculant. The DAAS test was carried out to identify the primary austenite grains. The degree of supercooling was determined and the UTS test was performed as well. Additionally carried out the metallographic specimen allowing for counting grains. It can be concluded that the introduction of the iron powder significantly improved the number of austenite primary grains which resulted in an increase in tensile strength UTS.

Inoculation of cast iron has become a commonly used metallurgical process, which is carried out in a foundry in order to improve the mechanical properties of utility alloys. It consists in changing the physicochemical state of the melted alloy. This change is caused by the introduction of cast iron with a low ability to nucleate graphite, shortly before pouring a small mass of the substance—an inoculant that increases the number of active nuclei. It is also justified that the literature often connects an increase in the tensile strength UTS of the inoculated grey cast iron, with changes in the characteristics of the particles of graphite. However, in strongly hypoeutectic cast iron, in which a large number of primary austenite grains crystallize, the interdendritic distribution of graphite is usually the result. It also follows that the nature of the graphite precipitates is determined by the mutual relations between the interfacial distances in eutectic grains and the interdendritic distances in the grains of primary austenite occurring in the Fe–C alloys. The article presents the influence of the inoculant on the characteristics of the precipitation of primary austenite grains in relation to the sulphur content in grey cast iron with flake graphite. The study also showed that primary grains in grey cast iron have a great influence on mechanical properties, such as the tensile strength UTS. In this case, the key is to know the value of the degree of undercooling ΔT. The type of inoculant used affects the ΔT value. The study related the number of N primary austenite grains with the degree of undercooling ΔT and the tensile strength UTS with the number of primary austenite N grains.

The study proves that by introducing the iron powder to low-sulphur cast iron still before the inoculation carried out with a conventional graphitising inoculant, the mechanical properties similar to those obtained during the inoculation treatment carried out on cast iron with the recommended high sulphur content are achieved. The said operation increases the number of crystallisation nuclei for of the primary austenite dendrites. In this case, the iron particles act as substrates for the nucleation of primary austenite due to a similar crystallographic behaviour of the regular face centered cubic lattice The more numerous are the dendrites of primary austenite, the less free space is available in the interdendritic spaces for the formation of graphite eutectic grains, which makes the mechanical properties higher.