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157
INTRODUCTION
researchers found that the presence or absence of continuous films of grain boundary carbides, discontinuous spherical carbides, and lamellar interdendritic carbides had a definite effect on the properties of the
alloy. When the microstructure showed a large-volume
fraction of grain boundary carbides, the measured
elongation to fracture values averaged 3.4%, with the
specimens showing globular and discontinuous intragranular carbides exhibiting larger ductilities. Some of
the specimens of the latter type showed as much as
12% elongation to fracture as well as a noticeable reduction in cross-sectional area. In this case it was also
observed that the grain size was particularly large,
with as few as two or three grains per cross-section.
Further work by Asgar and Peyton2 showed that
when the pouring temperature was increased, the ductility was improved without a severe effect on the yield
and tensile strengths in the as-cast condition. They
also suggested that the UTS was not affected by the
presence of microporosity, a result which disagrees
with the observations of Hollander and Wulff,3 who
reported that the UTS can be considerably improved
when the microvoids in an investment cast piece are
reduced by a hot isostatic pressing (HIP) treatment.
From the results of Asgar and Peyton,1,2 the following
observations arise: for tensile test pieces of the same
gauge length, higher casting temperatures result in
greater values of ductility; and for the same casting
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conditions, the greatest values of ductility are measured from tensile tests performed on the specimens
with the smallest gauge lengths.
Riddighough4 reported that the grain size in Co26Cr-0.5C alloy (X-40) castings depended on the temperature of the liquid metal prior to casting and the
preheating temperature of the mold. They showed that
in an investment cast blade the grain size varied significantly with the blade depth. This result clearly demonstrated the cooling rate dependency of the as-cast
grain size. As in the work of Asgar and Petyon, Riddighough reported a strong correlation between carbide volume fraction and mold temperature for the X40 alloys.
Microporosity in as-cast ASTM F-75 alloys has severe detrimental effects on their mechanical properties,
especially on their ductility.1,3,5 Hollander and Wulf3
demonstrated that the elimination of microporosity by
hot isostatic pressing leads to a 50% increase in the
ductility with little effect on the yield strength and
good improvement of the tensile strength. However,
in their investigation,3 the authors did not report their
casting conditions, and therefore it is not possible to
establish a causeeffect relationship between microporosity and microstructure or tensile properties.
Georgette and Davison5 sintered cobalt powder
around tensile test specimens. This caused severe porosity at the base metal-coating interface, leading to a
decrease in the tensile strength and elongation to failure. The incorporation of a HIP cycle in the processing
of the coated tensile test specimen increased the tensile
strength, the yield strength, and the elongation to fracture as a result of the elimination of porosity.
In this article, we present microstructural evidence
showing that pouring and preheating mold temperatures affect the evolution of the microstructure during
solidification and that different microstructures result
in a wide range of mechanical properties in the alloy
ASTM F-75. An active patient with a hip replacement
prosthesis may easily subject the implant to tensile
stresses close to, or over, the UTS of the material. In a
separate publication,6 it is shown that the ASTM F-75
fails catastrophically right at the UTS, with no signs
of localized deformation. Thus, since a failed implant
complicates severely the revision arthroplasty, the
present results indicate that ductility, as measured by
the elongation to fracture in a standard tensile test,
may be used as a good acceptance test for ASTM F-75
orthopedic implants. However, in view of the wide
range of ductility values reported in the literature, we
will discuss the limitations of the standard methods
used to determine the ductility of this type of alloy.
four measurements on each sample. The results, expressed as mean values for all data with the corresponding standard deviation, were as follows: 27% Cr
6 0.19, 5.29% Mo 6 0.03, 0.25% C 6 0.006, 0.48% Si 6
0.007, 0.75% Mn 6 0.007, 0.43% Ni 6 0.02, 1.5% Fe 6
0.007, and Co (balance). An analysis of variance allowed
us to establish that the mean values of elements concentrated on the samples presented differences that were
not statistically significant at a 95% confidence level.
Chemical analysis was performed by the Leco fusion
technique to determine carbon content and by spark
emission spectroscopy to determine all other elements.
The alloy was melted in an electric vacuum induction
furnace and cast into a ceramic investment casting
mold placed inside the furnace chamber, which was
maintained under an Ar gas pressure of 0.65 atm. Several heats were fabricated that varied the metal pouring
temperature from 1410 to 14708C and the mold temperatures from 900 to 10008C. The liquid metal was cast
into 10-mm diameter bars, which were then machined
into standard ASTM E8 subsize tension test specimens
with a gauge length of 25.4 mm and a gauge diameter
of 6.3 mm. The tensile tests were performed in a computer-controlled electro-mechanical system using a
25.4-mm gauge length extensometer with a 50% span.
This extensometer is built so that it is capable of withstanding fracture of the specimen during the test. Thus,
since tensile samples did not exhibit necking right up
to the point of fracture, the reading from the extensometer at the point of fracture was a sensitive measure
of the % elongation to fracture. This method of estimation of the ductility of the specimens avoids the errors
introduced by joining the fracture surfaces together
and measuring the distance between two previously
established fiducial marks. As will be shown later,
when the gauge length of the test piece is small, the
standard method can introduce errors as large as 100%.
The tensile test specimens and the testing procedure
conformed to the ASTM E8 standard specifications. As
a function of casting parameters, grain size and the
volume fraction of carbides in the microstructure were
followed quantitatively, using a computer-controlled
image analyzer according to the Abrams procedure
(ASTM E-112). In all the specimens tested (three for
each experimental condition), the microstructure and
features of the fracture surfaces were examined using
optical and scanning electron microscopy. In each specimen, the entire fracture surface was observed.
The chemical composition, in wt.%, of the ASTM F75 alloy was determined for each heat by performing
RESULTS
159
(b)
Figure 1. As-cast microstructures of the alloys studied
showing the dependency of the volume fraction of eutectic
and blocky carbides on the casting conditions: (a) preheating mold temperature 9008C, pouring temperature 14188C;
(b) preheating mold temperature 10008C, pouring temperature 14558C. Original magnification 3100.
ASTM F-75 standard specification for all casting conditions employed in the present work. However, in all
cases, the % elongation to fracture was below 4%,
which is about 50% lower than the minimum value
established by ASTM F-75. The analysis of variance
for all data at Tmold 5 9008C showed that the differences
of mean values were not statistically significant at a
95% confidence level. In contrast, because there is no
statistical evidence to say that the mean values are
equal, the same analysis for data at Tmold 5 10008C
shows small increasing tendency of ductility with the
increasing pouring temperature. It is noteworthy that
despite the minimum YS and UTS obtained with Tpouring
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160
DISCUSSION
Figure 2. Effect of preheating mold temperature and pouring temperature on the grain size.
Figure 3. Effect of preheating mold temperature and pouring temperature on: (a) the volume fraction of eutectic and
blocky carbides; (b) the ratio of the volume fraction of
blocky carbides to that of eutectic carbides, r(B/E).
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errors associated with estimating ductility in nonstandard gauge length specimens from measurements of
% elongation to fracture. Figure 7 shows graphically
the effect of the gauge length on the % elongation to
fracture values reported by Asgar and Peyton. The
usual method of placing the fracture surfaces of the
test specimen as close together as possible and measur-
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MEZ ET AL.
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ing the distance between two previously inscribed fiducial marks can introduce considerable error when
the gauge length is small. In order to illustrate this,
Figure 8 shows a set of SEM micrographs showing the
mismatch produced when one attempts to join together
the two fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens tested
to failure. In the examples shown in Figure 8, the mismatch causes a separation distance of approximately
150 em. For a tensile test specimen with a gauge length
of approximately 3 mm, the mismatch distance represents an error greater than 50%. This problem is more
serious for alloys that are intrinsically brittle and have
a large grain size. In order to eliminate from the results
of a tension test this kind of experimental error in
the estimation of the ductility, the use of large-span
extensometers capable of withstanding the fracture of
the specimen is recommended. Figure 7 demonstrates
that for specimens with a gauge length greater than
about 25 mm, the measured elongation to fracture becomes independent of gauge length, and then, using
an axial extensometer, the results of Asgar and Peyton
Figure 8. SEM micrograph showing the mismatch produced when attempting to join together the two fracture
surfaces of a tensile specimen tested to failure.
do indeed agree with the elongation to fracture measured in the present work.
The high ductility obtained in solution-treated
ASTM F-75 [Fig. 3(a,b)] is associated with a pouring
temperature of 14558C and a preheating mold temperature of 10008C. Under these conditions the microporosity was completely eliminated [Fig. 5(c)]. The lower
ductility values observed at the lowest pouring temperatures correspond to specimens cast into molds
preheated at lower temperatures. These specimens
showed also a large amount of microporosity. From
this result it can be concluded that the solution heat
treatment improves effectively the ductility of ASTM
F-75 alloys only when the microporosity has been eliminated completely. It is also noteworthy that the small
increase in tensile strength after the solution heat treatment is consistent with the reduction in the microporosity present in the alloy.
CONCLUSIONS
The present article presents a clear correlation
between processing-microstructure and mechanical
properties for ASTM F-75 alloys. It was found that the
as-cast grain size is very sensitive to preheating mold
and metal pouring temperatures. Also, it was shown
that the formation of eutectic carbides can be minimized by increasing the preheating mold and metal
pouring temperatures. This microstructure control
through optimization of the processing parameters
leads to optimum mechanical properties.
It was demonstrated that the maximum tensile ductility attainable in as-cast ASTM F-75 is on the order
of 4% for the wide range of casting conditions testing
in the present work. In addition, an acceptable level
of ductility (according with the ASTM F-75) can be
achieved in this material by a subsequent solution
treatment if, and only if, the casting conditions are
such that the microporosity is completely eliminated
from the casting.
Finally, when the measured % elongation to fracture
is used to estimate the ductility of large grain size
and brittle metals, it is of paramount importance that
calibrated, large-span extensometers be used. The use
of subsize tensile test specimens and the traditional
method of measuring % elongation to fracture by joining together the fracture surfaces of a fractured specimen may lead to an important overestimation of the
ductility of the material being evaluated.
163
References
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physical properties of cobalt base alloys, J. Dent. Res.,
6372 (1961).
2. K. Asgar and F. Peyton, Effect of casting conditions on
some mechanical properties of cobalt base alloys, J.
Dent. Res., 40, 7386 (1961).
3. R. Hollander and J. Wulff, New technology for mechanical properties improvement of cast Co-Cr-Mo-C implants, J. Biomed. Mater. Res., 9, 367369 (1975).
4. M. Riddighough, Properties of cobalt-base investmentcast alloys, Foundry Trade J., 107, 421428 (1959).
5. F. S. Georgette and J. A. Davidson, The effect of HIPing
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alloys, J. Metals, 21, 2742 (1969).
8. W. V. Youdelis and O. Kwon, Carbide phases in cobalt
base superalloy: Role of nucleation entropy in refinement, Metal Sci., 17, 379384 (1983).
Received August 16, 1995
Accepted February 26, 1996