The difference between inoculant and ferrosilicon

Some customers of foundries often don’t know the difference between inoculants and ferrosilicon. Some people say inoculants and others say ferrosilicon. What is the difference?

Inoculant introduction:

Inoculant is a kind of inoculant that can promote graphitization, reduce the tendency of white mouth, improve the shape and distribution of graphite, increase the number of eutectic clusters, and refine the matrix structure. It has a short period of time (about 5-8 minutes) after inoculation treatment. good effect. It is mainly suitable for general conditions in various situations or instantaneous incubation in later stages.

Inoculation treatment refers to adding a small amount of other substances to the liquid metal during the solidification process to promote nucleation, inhibit growth, and achieve the purpose of grain refinement. Traditionally, adding additives to cast iron is called inoculation treatment; adding additives to non-ferrous alloys is called modification treatment. Essentially, the inoculation treatment mainly affects nucleation and promotes the freeing of crystal grains; while the metamorphism treatment changes the growth mechanism of crystals (inhibits growth), thereby affecting the crystal morphology.

Ferrosilicon introduction:

Ferrosilicon is an iron alloy composed of iron and silicon. Ferrosilicon is a ferrosilicon alloy made from coke, steel scraps, and quartz (or silica) smelted in an electric furnace. Since silicon and oxygen are easily synthesized into silicon dioxide, ferrosilicon is often used as a deoxidizer during steelmaking. At the same time, since SiO2 emits a large amount of heat when it is generated, it is also beneficial to increase the temperature of molten steel while deoxidizing. At the same time, ferrosilicon can also be used as an alloying element additive and is widely used in low-alloy structural steel, spring steel, bearing steel, heat-resistant steel and electrical silicon steel. Ferrosilicon is often used as a reducing agent in ferroalloy production and the chemical industry.

The difference and connection between inoculant and ferrosilicon:

In the cast iron industry, ferrosilicon is used as an inoculant and spheroidizing agent. Cast iron is an important metal material in modern industry. It is cheaper than steel, easy to melt and smelt, has excellent casting properties and much better seismic resistance than steel. Especially for ductile iron, its mechanical properties meet or approach the mechanical properties of steel. Adding a certain amount of ferrosilicon to cast iron can prevent the formation of carbides in the iron and promote the precipitation and spheroidization of graphite. Therefore, in the production of nodular cast iron, ferrosilicon is an important inoculant (helping to precipitate graphite) and spheroidizing agent .

Common inoculants with good effects include: ferrosilicon inoculant, silicon barium inoculant, silicon calcium inoculant