SDWC Engine Technology Corporation took the lead in mastering the technology of making engines from vermicular graphite cast iron.
Vermicular graphite cast iron is recognized as a potential engine material. China's manufacturing must move towards high quality, which is reflected in the engine industry, and vermicular graphite cast iron is one of the key technologies. Previously, Sweden's Volvo and Germany's MTU were able to master this technology. SDWC is determined to develop the vermicular graphite cast iron technology. In the workshop of SDWC, there are more than 700 red vermicular graphite cast iron cylinders, representing the test pieces produced by the SDWC scientific research team, and one representing the result of an experiment. These cylinder blocks are all made of vermicular graphite cast iron. Vermicular graphite cast iron has two major characteristics, that is, the tensile strength and fatigue strength are almost twice that of traditional engine gray iron materials.
In the cast iron experimental workshop, those silver cored wires hide the painstaking research and development of Chinese craftsmen. Add these silver cored wires into the furnace, and ordinary molten iron can obtain vermicular graphite, which becomes a stronger vermicular graphite cast iron. In order to find the black powder formula in the cored wire, the SDWC scientific research team spent a full four years, hundreds of combinations, each of which requires countless trials and verification. Even with the formula, the manufacturing process is exactly the same. The length and speed of the cored wire fed into the furnace need to be measured repeatedly. The molten iron exceeding 1400 degrees Celsius must be strictly controlled to reach the creeping station within 50 seconds. The full filling of the vermicular molten iron into the mold must be completed within 8 minutes. In every link, the SDWC scientific research team must carefully control, because the vermicular graphite produced in the molten iron is a form between spherical graphite and flake graphite, which is very unstable. It is very difficult to produce unstable forms stably. All the process parameters have been mastered by the scientific research team of SDWC at present. The staff of the company’s scientific research team said: “The vermicular graphite cast iron process is like tossing a coin, with gray iron on the front and ductile iron on the reverse. It stands up as a vermicular graphite cast iron. Industrial production requires every coin toss to be erected.” .
In the SDWC assembly plant, three compacted graphite iron diesel engine cylinder blocks are rolled off the assembly line every minute. These compacted graphite iron engine blocks are being assembled on various heavy-duty diesel engines in China.