Design of the austempering heat treatment of a ductile iron differential case aided by computer simulation

Abstract Austempered ductile iron is frequently employed in the fabrication of automobile parts due to its good mechanical properties, and its simplicity and low cost of the manufacturing process. The heat treatment design is an important stage, in which parameters such as temperatures and durations are chosen according to the required microstructure, part dimension, and initial characteristics of ductile iron. A coupled thermo-mechanical-metallurgical model is employed in this work to facilitate the heat treatment design of a ductile iron differential case. The thermal-mechanical model is so...