6. 6 Copyright – P4S – PRODUCTS 4 STEELMAKING – All Rights Reserved – Author: Eng. Matteo Sporchia
IRON – CARBON PHASE DIAGRAM (PART 1) – How to build the phase diagram
3. IRON
Iron (Fe) is an allotropic metal that change behavior based on temperature. It's a
relatively soft and ductile metal. It exists in more than one type of lattice structure
(BCC/FCC). In fact there're four allotropic transformations and five phases that iron
can assume. All of these can be easily represented using a COOLING CURVE where
the following phases can be identified:
1.LIQUID PHASE (L), above 1539 °C iron is in the liquid phase;
2.DELTA FERRITE (δ-Fe), if we slowly cooling down the pure iron below his melting
point (1539 °C) it will crystallize into a phase, which has a body-centered cubic
(BCC) structure;