Department of Mechanical Engineering

Subject: Mechanical Workshop Lab / KWS-151P/ KWS-251P

Experiment No.1: Introduction to Mechanical workshop material, tools and machines
Objective: To study different engineering materials (mild steel, low, medium carbon steel,
high carbon steel, high speed steel and cast iron etc) used in workshop.
Introduction: Engineering materials are those materials which are used in the construction
and manufacturing of equipments/tools. Materials are an important aspect of engineering design
and analysis. In the customer driven competitive business environment, the product quality is of
paramount importance. The product quality has been found to be influenced by the engineering
design, type of materials selected and the processing technology employed.
Classification of materials: There is a wide variety of materials available which have
shown their potential in various engineering fields ranging from aerospace to house hold
applications. The challenge for designers is to select an optimal material suitable for the specific
design requirements. The engineering materials can be classified as:
1. Metals
• Ferrous Metal
➢ Steel
➢ Cast Iron
• Non-Ferrous metals
➢ Aluminium and its alloys
➢ Copper and its alloys
➢ Zinc
➢ Nickel
2. Non-Metals
• Plastics
• Composite materials
• Ceramic materials
3. Advanced materials
• Biomaterials
• Smart or intelligent materials
• Nano materials
Selection of material: The engineering materials are often primarily selected based on their
mechanical, physical, chemical and manufacturing properties for ensuring proper functioning
under desired conditions. The secondary points to be considered are the cost and availability,
appearance, service life and recyclability. In the present day, strict environmental legislations
have forced the designers and engineers to select the environment friendly materials which have
minimum environmental impact. When several materials are suitable for a particular design
requirement, the cheapest one is usually selected.
Properties of Engineering Materials: The behavior of material under a given set of
working condition is depends on the properties of that material. Materials have different
properties depending on where they are used. These properties are classified as:
1. Physical Properties of Materials: Physical properties of material are those which can be
observed without change of identity of material. These are density, color, size and shape,
specific gravity, porosity etc.
2. Chemical Properties of Materials: The tendency of the material to react with other
material is called chemical properties. These include reactivity, toxicity, solubility,
acidity, alkalinity, etc.
3. Thermal Properties of Materials: Thermal properties of material refer to the behavior
of material when heat is passed through it. The different thermal properties are thermal
conductivity, thermal expansion, specific heat, thermal diffusivity etc.
4. Electrical Properties of Materials: Electrical properties of material refer to the behavior
of material when current is passed through it. The different electrical properties are
electrical conductivity, dielectric strength, electrical resistivity etc.
5. Magnetic Properties of Materials: Materials response to externally applied magnetic
fields referred as magnetic property. The various magnetic properties are permeability,
hysteresis, coercive force etc.
6. Optical Properties of Materials: Material response to the incident radiation or light is
termed as optical properties. These include emissivity, absorptivity, transmissivity,
reflectivity etc.
7. Mechanical Properties of Materials: The properties of materials which describe its
behavior under applied forces are called mechanical properties. The important
mechanical properties are:
➢ Strength
➢ Hardness
➢ Toughness
➢ Elasticity
➢ Plasticity
➢ Ductility
➢ Malleability
➢ Brittleness
➢ Creep
➢ Fatigue
Strength: It is the property of a material which opposes the deformation of material in presence
of external forces or load. It is also defined as the ability of a material to resist the externally
applied forces without breaking or yielding.
Hardness: It is defined as the resistance offered by the material against indentation, wear,
scratch etc. It also means the ability of a metal to cut another metal. Diamond is the hardest kwon
material.
Toughness: It is the property of a material to resist fracture due to high impact loads like
hammer blows. It is measured by the amount of energy that a unit volume of the material has
absorbed after being stressed up to the point of fracture. This property is desirable in parts
subjected to shock and impact loads.

Elasticity: It is the property of a material to regain its original shape after deformation when the
external forces are removed. This property is desirable for materials used in tools and machines.
Plasticity: It is property of a material which retains the deformation produced under load
permanently. This property of the material is necessary for metal forming processes like forging,
rolling, extrusion, wire drawing etc.
Ductility: Ductility is a property of a solid material which indicates that how easily a material
gets deformed under tensile stress. This property enables the material to get stretched into a wire
by pulling or drawing. The ductility is usually measured by the terms, percentage elongation and
percentage reduction in area in a tensile test. The ductile material commonly used in engineering
practice are mild steel, copper, aluminium, nickel, zinc, tin etc.
Malleability: Malleability is a property of solid materials which indicates that how easily a
material gets deformed under compressive stress. Malleability is often categorized by the ability
of material to deform in the form of a thin sheet by hammering or rolling process. The malleable
materials commonly used in engineering practice are lead, soft steel, wrought iron, copper and
aluminium.
Brittleness: It is the property of a material by virtue of which it fractures without any plastic
deformation. Brittleness is opposite to ductility. Cast iron, glass, ceramic, graphite etc are
commonly used brittle materials in engineering practice.
Creep: When a part is subjected to a constant stress at high temperature for a long period of
time, it will undergo a slow and permanent deformation called creep. Creep is more severe in
material that are subjected to heat for long time. So this property is considered in designing
internal combustion engines, boilers and turbines etc.
Fatigue: When a material is subjected to cyclic stresses, it fails at stresses below the yield point
stresses. Such type of failure of a material is known as fatigue. The failure is caused by means of
a progressive crack formation which are usually fine and of microscopic size. Under cyclic stress
this crack propagates suddenly and the structure gets fractured. This property is considered in
designing shafts, connecting rods, springs, gears, etc.
Ferrous Metal: The ferrous metals are those which have the iron as their main constituent,
such as steels and cast iron. The mechanical properties of carbon mainly depend on the carbon
contents. Ferrous metals are classified as:
1. Steel: It is an alloy of iron and carbon and carbon content is varying within the range of
0.05%–2.10%. Other elements like silicon, sulphur, phosphorus and manganese are also
present to limited amount to impart certain desired properties to it. Steels are classified
as:
➢ Plain carbon steels
▪ Mild steel (carbon content < 0.15% )
▪ Low carbon steel (carbon content = 0.15 – 0.30%)
▪ Medium carbon steel (carbon content = 0.30 – 0.50%)
▪ High carbon steel (carbon content = 0.50 – 1.70%)
➢ Alloy steels
▪ Stainless steel
▪ High speed steel
2. Cast Iron: It is also an alloy of iron and carbon and carbon contents vary from 1.7 per
cent to 4.5 per cent.
▪ Gray Cast Iron
▪ White Cast Iron
▪ Malleable Cast Iron
▪ Ductile cast iron (or Nodular cast iron)
Plain carbon steel: Plain carbon steels are simple an alloys of iron and carbon only. The
mechanical properties of carbon steel mainly depend on the percentage of carbon in the alloy.
Mild steel: In mild steel the percentage of carbon is within the 0.15%. These steel are
extremely soft with outstanding ductility and toughness. Due to low strength and high
ductility, these steels best suited for cold forming operations such as deep drawing, wire
drawing, extrusion, rolling, stretch forming etc.
• These are used in manufacturing thin sheets, strips, wires, household items, automobile
body components etc.
Low carbon steel: Low carbon steel is the most widely used form of carbon steel. These
steels usually have carbon content in the range of 0.15- 0.30 wt%. The properties of low
carbon steel are similar to mild steel. These are soft and having high ductility and good
toughness.
• These are used in manufacturing automobile body sheets, structural shapes such as I-
beams, channels, sheet metal products, nuts, bolts, screws etc.
 Medium carbon steel: Medium carbon steels usually have carbon content in the range of
0.30- 0.50%. Because of higher percentage of carbon, these steels are less ductile but much
harder and have greater strength than low carbon steels.
• These are used in manufacturing automobile components like gears, axles, springs, crank
shafts, connecting rods etc.
High carbon steel: These steels usually have carbon content in the range of 0.50 – 1.70%.
High carbon steel properties include a very high strength, extreme hardness and resistance
to wear, and moderate ductility.
• It is used to manufacture cutting tools like twist drill, milling cutter, hacksaw blades etc.
because of its ability to keep a very sharp edge under stress. It is also used to
manufacture metal forming dies and punches
Alloy Steel: Alloy steel may be defined as steel to which alloying elements other than carbon
are added in sufficient amount to produce an improvement in properties. The alloying is done for
specific purposes to increase wear resistance, corrosion resistance and to improve electrical and
mechanical properties, which cannot be obtained in plain carbon steels. The major alloying
elements used in steel are nickel, chromium, molybdenum, cobalt, vanadium, manganese, silicon
and tungsten.
Stainless steel: Stainless steels are defined as iron base alloys in which “chromium is the
primary alloying elements” and contain 10.5% - 30%, chromium. When chromium is added
to steel, it forms chromium oxide, which acts as a protective surface to prevent air and
moisture from causing oxidation, as happens with ordinary steel.
• Since stainless steels are corrosion resistant alloy and so they are extensively used in the
chemical and drug industries, oil & gas industries, power generation industries, food
processing industries, manufacturing of medical instruments etc to encounter corrosion
High speed steel: This is an alloy steel having basic composition of 18% W, 4% Cr, 1% V,
0.7% C and rest is iron. High Speed Steels (HSS) are so named primarily because of their
ability to machine materials at high cutting speeds.
• HSS cutting tool can machine work material at speed approximately three to five times
higher than the tool made from high carbon steel.
Cast Iron: The cast iron is obtained by re-melting pig iron with coke and limestone in a
furnace known as cupola. It is primarily an alloy of iron and carbon. The carbon content in cast
iron varies from 2.10 per cent to 4.5 per cent. It also contains small amounts of silicon,
manganese, phosphorous and sulphur. The carbon in a cast iron is present in either of the
following two forms:
1. Free carbon or graphite, and
2. Combined carbon or cementite.
Since the cast iron is a brittle material, therefore, it cannot be used in those parts of machines
which are subjected to shocks. The properties of cast iron which make it a valuable material for
engineering purposes are its low cost, good casting characteristics, high compressive strength,
wear resistance and excellent machinability. The compressive strength of cast iron is much
greater than the tensile strength.
Tensile strength = 100 to 200 MPa*
Compressive strength = 400 to 1000 MPa
Grey cast iron: Grey cast iron is produced by slow cooling of the liquid cast iron. Because of
slow cooling, a large percentage of cementite is decomposes in to graphite which is grey in
colour. It has the following compositions:
Carbon = 3 to 3.5%
Silicon = 1 to 2.75%
Manganese = 0.40 to 1.0%
Phosphorous = 0.15 to 1%
Sulphur = 0.02 to 0.15%
The grey colour is due to the fact that the carbon is present in the form of free graphite. It has a
low tensile strength, high compressive strength and no ductility. It can be easily machined. A
very good property of grey cast iron is that the free graphite in its structure acts as a lubricant.
Due to this reason, it is very suitable for those parts where sliding action is desired. The grey iron
castings are widely used for machine tool bodies, automotive cylinder blocks, heads, housings,
fly-wheels, pipes and pipe fittings and agricultural implements.
White Cast Iron: White cast iron is produced by rapid cooling of liquid cast iron. Because of
rapid cooling graphitization process does not occurs and so all the carbon is present in cementite
form (iron carbide, Fe3C). It is called white cast iron because when broken, the fractured surface
has white appearance. The white colour is due to fact that it has no graphite and all the carbon is
in combined form. It has the following approximate compositions:
Carbon = 2.10 to 3.0%
Silicon = 0.85 to 1.2%
Manganese = less than 0.4%
Phosphorus = less than 0.2%
Sulphur = less than 0.12%,
White cast iron is unique in that it is the only member of the cast iron family in which carbon is
present only as carbide. Because of presence of carbide, it is very hard and brittle and finds
application where high abrasion and wear resistance is required such as liners for cement mixers,
ball mills, certain types of drawing dies and extrusion nozzles, slurry pumps, crushers, pump
impellers etc.
Malleable Cast Iron: Malleable cast iron is produced from white cast iron by slow annealing
heat treatment process. The metal is first cast as white cast iron by rapid cooling of liquid cast
iron. This white cast iron is reheated to about 1000oC for long periods of time. Due to slow
cooling, iron carbide breakdown into free graphite (Fe3C = 3Fe + C).
The microstructure composed of ferrite or pearlite. The graphite is present in the form of
spherical or nodular shapes. As a result of its good tensile strength and ductility, malleable cast
iron is used for electrical fittings and equipment, hand tools, pipe fittings, washers, brackets,
farm equipment, mining hardware, and machine parts.
Ductile Cast Iron: The ductile cast iron is obtained by adding small amounts of magnesium (0.1
to 0.8%) to the molten grey iron. The addition of magnesium causes the graphite to take form of
small nodules or spheroids instead of the normal angular flakes. It has high fluidity, castability,
tensile strength, toughness, wear resistance, pressure tightness, weldability and machinability.
• It is generally used for castings requiring shock and impact resistance along with good
machinability, such as hydraulic cylinders, cylinder heads, rolls for rolling mill and
centrifugally cast products.

Microstructures of different cast iron