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Some Casting Processes
Typical Cast Parts
• Components as shown in Fig.
(c) 11.1 are very complex and
(a)
intricate. Such irregularity and
complexity are difficult to be
(d) machined or to be
manufactured by solid bulk
deformation approaches,
especially for batch of certain
quantity. Detail and
(b) complicated features as
illustrated can be produced by
Figure 11.1 (a) Typical gray‐iron castings used in
casting processes. This can be
automobiles, including the transmission valve body clearly seen from the LHS
(left) and the hub rotor with disk‐brake cylinder components, which are cast
(front). Source: Courtesy of Central Foundry Division with different casting processes
of General Motors Corporation. (b) A cast
transmission housing. (c) The Polaroid PDC‐2000
as described in the title of the
digital camera with a AZ191D die‐cast high‐purity figure.
magnesium case. (d) A two‐piece Polaroid camera
case made by the hot‐chamber die‐casting process.
Source: Courtesy of Polaroid Corporation and Chicago
White Metal Casting, Inc.
Characteristics of Casting
There are many
processes in
casting which
were developed
to serve dissimilar
purposes and
shape various
types of
components. The
LHS table
tabulates some
common
processes
available in
industry,
specifically for
reference only.
It is impossible to
mention all these
casting processes
in this course. We
thus only
selectively focus
upon few here.
Sand Casting Sand casting is an oldest manufacturing process
available in our lives.
Fig. 11.3 shows the designed features of a sand mold
for sand casting. It consists two half mold which is
mainly made of sand in metallic flask for easy handling
and strengthening. Cavity of a casting and its
associated risers, gating and runner system are made
from or along parting line. Downwardly tapping sprue
promotes laminate flow and prevent entrapment of
air/gas to form oxide impurities. The sank well at the
end of sprue means to gather initially formed oxides so
as to purify to certain extent melt into mold cavity.
Runner channel allows melt flowing through to cavity.
The middle blind riser connecting the top surface of
runner serves to (i) trapping air/gas from upstream, (ii)
skimming impure oxides at its LHS corner, (iii) trapping
excessive melt to ensure complete filling, (iv) modifying
temperature distribution of mold so that filled melt
freezing from far LHS side of mold to RHS, and (v)
refilling melt to occupy space left in shrinkage cavity.
The vent assists the venting off initial air/gas in cavity.
The open riser also assists air/gas venting and
Figure 11.3 Schematic illustration of a complete filling of cavity. The sand core clamped in the
sand mold, showing various features. middle of cavity means to prevent melt filling up the
position so that a hole can be produced in the casting.
In Sand Casting, the top half mold is normally named
COPE while its bottom counterpart is termed DRAG.
In Slide 4, the casting cavity is divided into two
halves: one in cope and another in drag. As seen, (i)
Pattern Plate the pouring cup and sprue, and the blind riser, vent,
and open riser are all in the cope (being built
surrounding the cavity); (ii) runner, gate, and well
are in the drag. Normally, such arrangement
facilitates the building up of sand mold. As illustrated
in Fig. 11.4, a plate (or two separate plates) is (or
are) used in the mold making as the parting line of
the two halves of a complete mold pair.
Fig. 11.14 illustrates such integration. A rotor with
turbine blades for a gas turbine is firstly fabricated by
wax (a). Use this wax pattern, with slurry and/or Stucco
coating mixing solution are replaced by ceramic liquid
for producing strong ceramic shell (following
investment casting method) for the wax pattern (b),
Figure 11.14 Investment casting of an integrally
The melting of wax pattern in shell by heat application
cast rotor for a gas turbine. (a) Wax pattern and draining of the molten wax off the shell result in
assembly. (b) Ceramic shell around wax ceramic shell readily to fill superalloy melt into the
pattern. (c) Wax is melted out and the mold is shell under vacuum condition, which allows the casting
filled, under a vacuum, with molten superalloy. of superalloy rotor fabricated in the shell (c). The
(d) The cast rotor, produced to net or near‐net breaking off of the ceramic shell facilitates a cast rotor
shape. Source: Courtesy of Howmet
to be produced to near‐net or net shape.
Corporation.
The previous slides mention of casting processes involves
Vacuum‐Casting with (i) expendable mold production, (ii) expendable
pattern production, and (iii) expendable mold and
pattern production. They can only be used once and/or
several times, i.e. for single off or small batch
production, and their filling mainly depends on
gravitational force on the materials. For mass or large
quantity production, metallic permanent mold and/or
pattern is favorably used. In addition, external
compression is also applied to promote filling and
shorten interior distance of material. Subsequent slides
are thus focusing upon some of these processes.
Features (Fig. 11.21b):
• Fig. 11.21b shows the features and operational principles of a typical centrifuging
casting process. Its onfiguration includes: (i) a circular mold with cavities of
castings situating at the periphery of mold, (ii) a runner and gating system situating
in the central portion of the mold where molten material can be filled in a pouring
basin at the center. The casting mold system is fastened to a revolving table.
Operations:
• When molten material is poured into the pouring basin in the center of the casting
system, the combined action of pressure head and centrifugal force pushes the
material through the runner and gating system in the central portion to the
cavities of castings situating at the periphery of the circular mold. The equipment
will still be revolved until all the material casting cavities completely solidified.
Because of the filling melt into the casting cavities is entirely due to the action of
centrifugal force, the process is thus called centrifuging or spin casting. It is noted
from Fig. 11.21b that the bulk of a cavity can be located at the outside portion of
the periphery when this process is used.
Squeeze‐Casting Setup features
It consists of a die block with cavity in middle. At
its bottom, there is an ejector pin. A punch with
tip size smaller than the inner size of cavity and a
crucible for scooping melt from furnace (Fig.
11.22(a))
Operations
After properly setting up of the equipment,
crucible scoops melt from furnace and pours it
into cavity of die (Fig. 11.22(b)). Then the punch
is lowering down to squeeze the melt, which is
squeezed to flow backward and filling up the gap
between die inner wall and outer size of the
punch (Fig. 11.22(c)). The system is dwelled on
for a while until the melt in between the
clearance is completely solidified. The top punch
is thus lifted up and ejector pin is pushed up to
release the solidified casting.
As the process is involved with squeezing the
melt to fill up the clearance form between die
and punch, as filling of solid material into the die
cavity of forging die. Hence, the squeezing casting
Figure 11.22 Sequence of operations process is also commonly termed as liquid
in the squeeze‐casting process. This forging. For the operational principles and setup
process combines the advantages of features as mentioned above, the process is
suitably to cast hollow cups.
casting and forging.
Design, Materials, and Economics
METAL CASTING
General Design Rules for Casting
• Design the part so that the shape is cast easily.
• Select a casting process and material suitable for the
part, size, mechanical properties, etc.
• Locate the parting line of the mold in the part.
• Locate and design the gates to allow uniform feeding of
the mold cavity with molten metal.
• Select an appropriate runner geometry for the system.
• Locate mold features such as sprue, screens and risers,
as appropriate.
• Make sure proper controls and good practices are in
place
Locating and Designing Gates
• Multiple gates often are preferable and are necessary for
large parts.
• Gates should feed into thick sections of castings.
• A fillet should be used where a gate meets a casting; this
feature produces less turbulence than abrupt junctions.
• The gate closest to the sprue should be placed sufficiently
far away so that the gate can be easily removed.
• The minimum gate length should be three to five times the
gate diameter, depending on the metal being cast.
• Curved gates should be avoided, but when necessary, a
straight section in the gate should be located immediately
adjacent to the casting.
Riser Design
• The riser must not solidify before the casting.
• The riser volume must be large enough to provide a
sufficient amount of liquid metal to compensate for
shrinkage in the cavity.
• Junctions between casting and feeder should not develop a
hot spot where shrinkage porosity can occur.
• Risers must be placed so that the liquid metal can be
delivered to locations where it is most needed.
• There must be sufficient pressure to drive the liquid metal
into locations in the mold where it is most needed.
• The pressure head from the riser should suppress cavity
formation and encourage complete cavity filling
Design Rules for Casting
Figure 12.1 Suggested design modifications to avoid defects in castings
Design Rules for Casting
Use radii or fillets to avoid corners (Fig. 12.1(a)) Ribs and/or fillets improve bosses (Fig. 12.1(d))
Mechanically, sharp corner is generally raiser for stress concentration during Boss is a mechanical feature for fastening or mounting
loading. In filling of melt metal/alloy, sharp corner tends to create flow other mechanical part on by bolt and nut, etc. If the
separation and/or eddy flow down stream, which jeopardizes uniform fusion boss is rather high and slim, it may not be rigid/stiff.
of solidified material and/or leads to air entrapment and impure oxides within Reinforcement is thus required by introducing
swirled positions. The introduction of radii or fillets at the sharp corners strengthening ribs. Melts in such ribs can also serve to
provides more material and reduces induced stress value. It also allows melt re‐fill possibly shrinkage cavity in the bulk bottom
to flow along the boundary of the radii and fillets so as to minimize separation section to certain extent. To facilitate the filling of melt,
fillets are also introduced at individual corners and
and oxide impurity formation. Furthermore, it also lowers the heat interception planes.
accumulation at the inner corner and speeds up relatively the solidification
Sloping bosses can be designed for straight die parting
rate at that corner. to simplify die design (Fig. 12.1(e))
Deep cavities should be on one side of casting where possible (Fig. 12.1(b)) The inclining slope of the two bosses (LHS Fig. 12.1(e))
When deep cavities are not on one side of casting (LHS of Fig. 12.1(b)), the makes mold removal rather difficult. Thus split mold
deep cavity, on the different side with large bottom mold for production of the should be designed. Furthermore, the accumulation of
large cavity in the bottom of the casting, generally requires separate core to material in parts below the individual holes likely forms
be made and situates at the cavity position. Such core is difficult to mount and shrinkage cavity. The re‐designed RHS part with hollow
align with its bottom shallow cavity. However, Design modification with deep bottom in each boss and vertically right up on RHS wall
so as to cater for mold removal. In addition, the hollow
cavities on a single side allows the integration of shallow cavities to be bottom allows the accomplishment of uniform walls
produced with a single top half mold, and the bottom half mold with high section.
protrusion part for fabricating the larger deep cavity and smaller deep cavity Side cores can be eliminated with this hole design (Fig.
by a core with print to be clamped rigidly on the bottom mold. 12.1(f))
Wall section should be uniform (Fig. 12.1(c)) Ref to LHS part in Fig. 12.1(f), the through top with
As the part with non‐uniform sections in the LHS of Fig. 12.1(c) has bulk of some material blocks the release of core for making the
material accumulated in the middle and relatively large material gathering at hole, thus slow down the production rate. However, the
the RHS section, they have tendency to form shrinkage cavity somewhere in removing of material just on the top of hole (RHS Fig.
the center. Furthermore, it may exhaust of large amount of material. The 12.1(f)) so that the top mold for making the core for
making the hole recess can be considered tongue of the
modified part with uniform section throughout (RHS Fig. 12.1(c)) solves the top half mold. Such modification improves productivity
solidification problem in creating shrinkage cavity in the bulk region as of casting and reduces mold making cost.
illustrated in its LHS counterpart. It also saves material used.
Elimination of Hot Spots
Figure 12.2 Examples of designs showing the importance of maintaining uniform
cross‐sections in castings to avoid hot spots and shrinkage cavities.
Elimination of Hot Spots
• Ref to Fig. 12.2(e), when such core is
• In natural cooling, the heat dispersion nature inappropriate to use in the design, either
results in solidification starting from inner wall of external chills or internal chills can be used
mold cavity towards to its core. Due to in casting processing (Lecture 1 notes).
contraction of remaining melt in the core, it
leaves some spaces in the center of the cavity of • Ref to Fig. 12.2, the intercepting position of
larger bulk section (Fig. 12.2). This creates two neighboring plane not only furnishes
quality problem of shrinkage porosity and gas with larger cross sectional region comparing
bubbles which are unable to surface out from a with its neighboring sections, it also
casting. As shown in Fig. 12.2(a, b, c), the cross of
two neighboring sections tends to results larger jeopardizes heat transfer efficiency due to
cross‐sectional area than its two vicinity legs, its inner corner accumulating heat
where are termed hot spot and usually inclined dispersing from horizontal and vertical
to prompt for forming shrinkage cavity (LHS Fig. surfaces. Consequently, it also reduces heat
12.2(c)). Design to eliminate such spots can transfer rate.
normally be achieved by designing uniform
cross‐sections in castings whatever possible, as • The design in RHS part of Fig. 12.2(c) gives
shown in RHS part in Fig. 12.2(c) and/or RHS part uniform cross sections. It also radiates
in Fig. 12.2(d), whenever the redesigning of outward the heat from the outside filleted
these castings does not affect the assembly or corner, and slows down heat accumulation
functionality of a product. When the peripheral rate in its inner corner.
shape of a casting needs to be maintained, a
possible solution to eliminate such hot spots is • The design in RHS part of Fig. 12.2(d) by
designing a hole in place of their corresponding shifting the top and bottom vertical section
position, which can be produced by a core and as away so that they are not aligning each
shown in Fig. 12.2(e). other, provides more surface area for heat
transfer and reduces the amount of meld at
the original cross of the cross sections.
Examples of Good and Poor Designs
Figure 12.3 Examples of undesirable (poor) and desirable (good) casting designs. Source:
Courtesy of American Die Casting Institute.
Examples of Good and Poor Designs
• LHS part in Fig. 12.3(a) shows a part with hole for • In Fig. 12.3(d), it is noted that the part at LHS with
inserting bolt/scres with countersank head. The curving patterns both internally and externally,
bottom material vicinity to the bottom surface of whilst the RHS one only with external patterns and
countersank screw head means expansive mold uniform internal surface only. Design in RHS one
making/design, or difficulty in mounting the core makes the contraction easier to control, cylindrical
for hole. The removing of this material allows annular core cheaper to make and relatively more
integration of the sank region and clamping print of uniform contraction, and the external patterns
core rigidly with bottom half mold, as shown in RHS increasing heat transfer area.
part of Fig. 12.3(a) • Fig. 12.3(e) shows the semi cylindrical patterns on a
• LHS part of Fig. 12.3(b) is a thick plate with large cushioning by layer of materials. The LHS one with
surface area. The temperature distribution during cylindrical rod patterns larger its semi counterpart
cooling susceptibly creates bubbles or shrinkage in RHS, thus leads to difficulty to make and likely
cavity in its middle section. To surmount such solidification problem comparatively.
problem, it is possible by redesigning the central • Fig. 12.3(f) shows a flange with a stud inserting in as
part with squared basin so that it furnishes quicker a core. Obviously the thread body for LHS one is too
heat dispersion from the central region to achieving long and reaching the inner flange surface. This may
possibly directional solidification, as shown in RHS results in some melt splashing or leaking into the
part in Fig. 12.3(b). top section of the thread. However, the longer
• LHS part of Fig. 12.3(c) with sharp internal corners shrank section on the top section makes the first
may result in stress concentration and/or thread relatively far away from the inner face of
solidification problem in the thicker bottom section. flange, thus ensuring the proper condition of the
The redesign with recess radii at the interfacial inserting core.
corners relaxes the stress concentration and also
allows those melt originally in the middle to
replenish in the bottom horizontal section.
Properties and Applications of Cast Irons
Properties and Applications of Nonferrous Cast Alloys