Austempered ductile iron castings, or more commonly ADI castings, is a ductile iron casting which is processed by a special heat treatment. The austempering process, with ductile iron’s superior castability, results in a material which can be used to cast complex shapes, with a greater consistency of quality, and often at less cost. The heat treatment requires an interrupted quench, usually into a salt bath, to cool the cast part at a planned rate and then held isothermally for long enough to convert the microstructure to Ausferrite. The resulting material has a combination of exceptional strength and toughness, meeting and often exceeding those of alloy steels.
Brinell Test methods are defined in the following standards: ASTM E10 ; ISO 6506
All Brinell tests use a carbide ball indenter. The test procedure is as follows:
Because of the wide test force range the Brinell test can be used on almost any metallic material. The part size is only limited by the testing instrument’s capacity.
