There are many metals present in nature, and by mining them, they can be put to several uses. Few metals that can be found easily are Iron, copper, aluminum, etc., all of which are very important in industrial and commercial industries. Now among them, Iron is the most known and most used metal. It can be easily found and is put to several uses. It won’t be wrong to say there is not a single building in the world that does not have any iron appliance or thing in it.
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- Making pipes that have to carry fluids or liquids.
- Manufacturing of machines.
- Development of automotive parts.
- Making utensils and other households items.
- Making anchor of ships.
Main Differences Between Iron and Cast Iron
- The main difference between Iron and Iron Cast is in their nature. Iron is a pure metallic element that can be found in nature, whereas Cast Iron is an alloy that has properties of more than one element and is not found in its natural state in nature.
- In terms of oxidization, Iron has the disadvantage that it gets oxidized easily as compared to the Cast Iron metal that does not get oxidized easily. This is dues to its enhanced properties by adding Iron with other metals.
- Both of them can also differ in terms of the consistency of crystals. Iron is relatively softer, whereas the consistency of crystals of Cast Iron is relatively more brittle as compared to Iron. Except for this, they also have different malleability. While the Iron is malleable due to soft consistency, most of the cast iron is not malleable (exceptions are there) due to its brittle nature.
- Both of the elements have some common and some different properties. But in general, Iron has consistent properties. For example, every piece of an iron possesses the same properties, whereas the properties of Cast Iron vary depending on their alloy element and its ratio.
- When compared in terms of the melting point of these elements, Iron has a higher melting point, i.e., 1536°C, whereas the melting point of Cast Iron is relatively low than Iron and depends upon its alloy.
Conclusion
With all the above information and differences between Iron and cast Iron, there won’t be any difficulty while identifying them. They are similar to Iron is the main metallic element. There is no argument which of them is better in terms of usage.
In general, also alloys are made to enhance the naturally occurring metal to make their existing properties stronger and add additional advantages to them of other elements as well. There are other alloys of Iron as well (stainless steel). They are made by considering their usage and properties that need to be enhanced more. Lastly, all of these alloys have all the beneficial properties of iron metal.
References
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/41255648
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135414005387
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921509305010233