Acta Metallurgica Slovaca, Vol. 24, 2018, No. 3, p. 213-222 213 DOI 10.12776/ams.v24i3.1146 p-ISSN 1335-1532 e-ISSN 1338-1156 A RAPID APPROACH TO ESTIMATE THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF GREY CAST IRON CASTINGS P. Ferro 1* , T. Borsato 1 , F. Bonollo 1 , S. Padovan 2 1 University of Padova, Department of Engineering and Management, Stradella S. Nicola 3, 36100, Vicenza, Italy 2 Fonderie di Montorso, via Valchiampo 62, 36050, Montorso (VI), Italy Received: 20.06.2018 Accepted: 29.08.2018 * Corresponding author: e-mail: paolo.ferro@unipd.it, ferro@gest.unipd.it, Tel.: +39 0444 998769, University of Padova, Department of Engineering and Management, Stradella S. Nicola 3, 36100, Vicenza, Italy Abstract Grey cast iron is a brittle or quasi-brittle material very sensitive to the microstructure morphology deriving from its solidification kinetics. This is the reason why different zones of a casting, even with the same thickness, may be characterized by different mechanical properties according to the solidification time. The mechanical characterization of the alloy made by following the Standards that refer to values obtained from separately casted samples is insufficient for a designer who needs to know the specific properties of the material in each zone of interest of the casting. In this work a method is described to predict the mechanical properties of castings made of GH 190 cast iron that correlates the solidification times with the ultimate tensile strength through a master curve, supposed to depend only on alloy chemical composition. This predictive approach was successfully validated with experimental mechanical characterization of a real industrial casting. Keywords: Grey Iron, Finite Element, Thermal Analysis, Mechanical Properties, GH 190 1 Introduction Grey cast iron is one of the most widely used ferrous alloys in the world. This is due to its unique technological, physical and mechanical characteristics such as a lower melting point compared to that of the others ferrous alloy, good thermal conductivity, vibration damping ability and good machinability. It is used to produce, by casting, near-net shape components such as diesel engine components, including cylinder heads, cylinder blocks and piston rings. The major drawback of this material is its brittleness mainly due the notching effects induced by the brittle flake graphite morphology that acts as a discontinuity in the relatively tough metallic matrix. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is the results of the intimate collaboration between the flake graphite and the primary phases [1], which in turn depends on the cooling rate or the solidification time at each point of the casting. It is an important task to identify the contribution of the different microstructure components to crack formation. Beats [2], for instance, by using the fracture mechanics theory, formulated the UTS of these alloys as a function of half of the maximum graphite flake length. In another work, Ruff and Wallance [3], correlated the primary austenite and the eutectic cell with the UTS in grey cast irons. Finally, Diòszegi et al. [1] proposed a new model to predict the tensile strength of grey cast iron based on interpretation of the stress intensity behaviour in a single eutectic cell prior to fracture.