One of the oldest high alloys white cast irons is produced commercially when the chromium content is between 23 and 28 %. The high-chromium white irons have excellent abrasion resistance and are used effectively in slurry pumps, brick molds, coal-grinding mills, rolling mill rolls, shot blasting equipment, and components for quarrying, hard-rock mining and milling.

The specifications and requirements applied for the white cast iron components are among the most stringent used within the iron foundry branch. One of the biggest problems for the production of these components is hot tearing or hot cracking, or hot shortness. Irrespective of the name, this phenomenon represents the formation of an irreversible failure (crack) in the still semisolid casting.

This paper will show a study of the effect of cooling rate on the cracks. The procedure to achieve this was to study one casting component, impeller, in a production scale using different cooling rate after pouring.

In this work it has been shown that the solidification rate has a strong effect on the hot cracking.