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Additives
• Since molding material is often reclaimed and recycled, by adding
few additive to impart desired properties.
• Few additives and their role is as under:

Cores, chaplets and chills

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Cores Sand composition of cores

➢ Core sand is composed the sand grains, binders and other additives to provide
specific properties.
➢ Cores are used for making
cavities and internal features ➢ Silica sand:
which cannot be produced by ❖ coarse silica (higher temperature conditions ) steel foundries
the pattern alone. ❖ finer sands: cast irons and non-ferrous alloys.
➢ Cores are generally made of the ➢ Binders: are burnt away and make the core collapsible during the cooling.
sand and are even used in
permanent molds. ➢ Generally core oil (1%) and water (2.5 to 6%). is added in mixture

➢ Cores are surrounded by the

melt, therefore subjected to
more severe thermal and
mechanical conditions
➢ Hence, core sand should be of
higher strength, refractoriness
than the molding sand.
• Properties needed in core:
– Strength (hot/cold),
– refractoriness,
– Low gas emission
– Friability, finish of surface
– Permeability and collapsibility

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Core print Chaplets

➢ Core prints help to position the core in the mold securely and correctly.
➢ Designed properly to take the weight of the core and metallostatic pressure of
the melt due to buoyancy determined by density difference of mould material
and melt and size of core.
• Metallic supports used to position and support the cores.
• May cause defects or weak zone.
• Made of the similar composition as casting Material.
• Large enough to avoid complete melting and small enough so that their surface
melts and fuses with the cast surface.

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Types of Chaplets Chills

• Metallic pieces of high heat capacity and high thermal conductivity material that
placed in the mold adjacent to the casting to achieve following objective:

• To develop suitable temperature gradient in melt during solidification to

promote directional solidification by accelerating the localized cooling which in
turn results in:

➢ To increase the effective feeding distance of a riser

➢ To reduce number of risers required for casting

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Types of sand used in moulding

➢ Molding sand: to prepare the mold
➢ Facing sand: for smooth casting surfaces desired properties like
refractoriness
➢ Backing sand: is the reconditioned “used sand” used for preparing mould
after the facing sand
➢ Parting sand: for easy separation and removal of pattern and mould
halves
Melting, Pouring, Solidification, Mold
➢ Bottom board: board used for keeping and preparing the mold Removal and Cleaning

Melting Melting furnaces

• Melting involves melting of metals and melt treatment • Electric arc furnace

• Melt treatment: fluxing, degassing, alloying (grain refinement and modification) • High rate of melting

• Less polluting
• Providing Molten Material (with suitable furnace) having
• Ability to hold molten material at constant
• Proper Temperature (to have desired fluidity, time before solidification begins) temperature for long period of time

• Desired Quantity, • Induction furnaces

• Acceptable Quality, • Excellent mixing capabilities due to
electromagnetic stirring → useful for alloys
• Reasonable Cost
• Coil completely surrounds the crucible.

• Crucible furnaces
• Heat generated due to combustion of fuel
(coal, oil etc.)

• Cupola furnaces
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Pouring Technique Solidification Process

• To introduce the molten metal • It depends on design of

into the mold to produce a gating system and
temperature gradient
high-quality casting that is established after pouring
fully dense and free of defects of melt.
by
• Castings should be
•Allowing escape of all air or designed so as to have
gases present in the cavity or directional solidification
those generated by mold- (one which proceeds form
metal reaction one direction to another)
•Minimum turbulence and to avoid casting defects
• Shrinkage related defects
time for feeding the metal porosity and crack under
•Minimum pick up of excessive restraint
conditions
impurities from atmospheric
• Hot cracks are typical
air examples

Cleaning, finishing and inspection of casting

• Extra material remains attached with

casting in form of metal solidified
• at gate and rise and
• along the mold parting lines Calculation of solidification time
• Mold material adhered to the casting
surface
• All these Material should be removed
from the finished casting
• Castings are inspected for defects

Calculation of solidification time Calculation of solidification time

Chvorinov's Rule is a mathematical relationship first expressed by Czech engineer Nicolas

Chvorinov in 1940 that relates the solidification time for a simple casting to the volume
and surface area of the casting.

C is a constant that reflects (a) the mold material, (b) the metal properties (including latent
heat), and (c) the pouring temperature
The parameter n has a value between 1.5 and 2, but usually is taken as 2.

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Calculation of solidification time

In the casting of steel under certain mold conditions, the mold constant is known to be 4.0
min/cm2 , based on casting data. The casting is a flat plate whose length l= 30 cm, width w=
10 cm, and thickness h= 20 cm. Determine how long it will take for the casting to solidify

Casting Defects

Casting defect
Defects caused by gases
(Blow Holes and Open Blows, Pin Hole Porosity, and Air Inclusion)
• These can be generated by
• Presence of gases from • Origin of the gaseous defects
different sources is low permeability besides
poor venting, which may be • Blow Holes
• Use of improper mould due to
materials
• finer grain size of the • Scars
• Excessive shrinkage of metal sand,
• Improper pouring of melt • higher clay,
into the mould • Blisters
• higher moisture,
• Unfavorable metallurgical
reactions • excessive ramming of the
molds. • Porosity
• Improper design of the
gating system & casting. • Air inclusion
• Excessive gas generation

Defects caused by shrinkage Defects caused by poor molding

(Cuts and Washes, Penetration, Fusion, Run Out, Rat tails and Buckles, swell,
(porosity, shrinkage cavity) Drop)
• These occur due to • Run out: leakage of melt due to poor holding of
molding flasks
• lack of directional solidification i.e.
• Fusion: melting of sand grain and forming hard
solidification from one end to another glossy surface due to
• improper gating system, • Clay in the Molding Sand is of Lower
• inadequate risers to feed melt Refractoriness
• Pouring Temperature is Too High
• poor design of casting involving
abrupt changes of sectional thickness, • Penetration of melt: too coarse sand grains
• too high pouring temperature. • Cuts and washes:
• Erosion of molding surface due to poor strength
of mould
• Improper flow: turbulent and high velocity of
melt due to improper grating system design

Shrinkage porosity

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Defects due to improper pouring

Defects caused by poor moulding
• Rat Tails and Buckles: Compression
Failure of the Skin of the Mold Cavity
due to
• High expansion of sand mould wall
of low hot strength owing to
excessive heat of melt
• Buckles are the Severe Rat Tails
• Swell: shifting of mould wall under
metallostatic load of melt due to poor
ramming and strength of sand
• Drop: Dropping of loose molding sand
form cope surface (due to poor
ramming) & developing additional
cavity
(mis run, cold shut, slag inclusions)
• Mis-run: occurs due to inability of melt to fill the mold
completely and thus leaves unfilled cavities.
• Cold shut: occurs when streams of melt coming from
different directions do not fuse together properly, thus
leading formation of an interface or discontinuity in the
casting.
• Above two are encouraged by
• low fluidity of the melt
• too small section thickness of the casting.
• castings with large surface area to volume ratio
• when the heat removal capacity is increased such
as in case of green sand molds
• Slag inclusions: Improper filtration of slag, sand other
impurities caused by poor gating design

Defect due to unfavourable metallurgical reactions (hot

tearing, hard spot formation) Defect due to unfavourable metallurgical
• Hot tearing occurs in presence of shrinkage stress reactions (hot tearing, hard spot formation)
in alloys having wide solidification range only due • Hard spots are formed:
to low strength and ductility near the end of • in cast iron and steel castings
mainly due to
solidification, among these residual stress occurs • uncontrolled metallurgical
due to: transformation i.e. formation of
• Poor casting design e.g. abrupt changes in cross section
hard phases e.g. martensite
and no proper fillet • especially when cooling rate
experienced by melt is too high
• Poor collapsibility of mold and core due to too hard which may be due to
ramming • Too much moisture in molding
sand Hard spots make the
• Improper design of die i.e. machining difficult and
metallic mould increase cracking tendency

Classification of Casting processes

Some casting processes

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Expendable mold, expendable

Evaporative pattern casting
pattern casting process
• Uses a polystyrene pattern, which evaporates upon contact

• Evaporative pattern casting (Lost-foam process) with molten metal to form a cavity for the casting

• Investment casting • Also known as lost–foam casting

• Polystyrene beads are placed in a preheated die, polystyrene

• Ceramic shell investment casting
expands and takes the shape of the die, beads fuse and bond
together with additional heat

Evaporative pattern casting Lost foam/evapourative casting

Evaporative pattern casting Evaporative pattern casting

Advantages:
Disadvantages:
• Process is simple since no parting line, cores, or riser system. Hence, design
flexibility • The cost to produce the die used for expanding the
• Inexpensive flasks are satisfactory
polystyrene beads to make the pattern and the need
• Cheap polystyrene makes complex shapes, various sizes with fine details
economical
for two sets of tooling
• Process requires minimal finishing and cleaning operations

• Process can be automated and is economical for long production runs

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Investment casting Investment casting

• Also known as lost wax process

• The pattern is made of wax or of a plastic such as polystyrene, by

molding or RP

• The pattern is then dipped into a slurry of refractory material such as

very fine silica and binders including water, ethyl silicate, and acids.

• The pattern is coated repeatedly to increase its thickness for better

strength

• The pattern is invested (surrounded) with refractory material

Investment casting advantages

• casting of extremely complex parts

• Good surface finish and high dimensional accuracy. Tolerances as low

as (.076mm)

• Very thin sections (as narrow as 0.4mm) can be produced by this

process.

• Practically any metal can be investment cast.

• Parts manufactured by this process are generally small upto 35kg

• Parts up to 1.5m diameter and weights up to 1140 kg have been

successfully casted

Investment casting disadvantages Ceramic-shell investment casting

• Investment casting is a complicated process and is relatively
expensive. • Variation of investment casting

• The pattern is dipped first in ethyl silicate gel

• Then subsequently in fluidized bed of fine-grained fused

silica or zircon flour

• The pattern is then dipped in coarser grained silica to built

up additional coating

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Permanent mold casting Permanent mold casting

• Two halves of mold are made from material with high
• Vacuum casting resistance to erosion and thermal fatigue

• Slush casting • Mold cavity and gating systems are machined into the mold

• The surfaces of mold are usually coated with refractory slurry

• Pressure die casting
(such as sodium silicate and clay) or sprayed with graphite
• Centrifugal casting

Vacuum casting Vacuum casting

• Mold is then partially immersed in molten metal in
• Useful technique for thin walled (0.5 mm), complex shapes
induction furnace with the help of a robotic arm
with uniform properties
• Vacuum reduces pressure inside the mold drawing
• A mixture of fine sand and urethane is molded over metal dies molten metal in mold cavity, and removed once filled
and cured over amine vapor

• Process can be automated, can cost similar to green sand

casting

Slush Casting Pressure die casting

• Used for Hollow castings with thin walls
• Suitable for small production runs
• Molten metal is poured in metal mold
• After desired thickness of solidified skin is obtained, the mold is
inverted.
• In vacuum casting and slush casting molten metal flows by
gravity
• In pressure casting, molten metal is forced upward by gas
pressure into mold cavity
• The pressure is maintained until the metal solidified
completely

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Cold chamber Pressure Die

Pressure Die casting
casting
• In a cold chamber process, the molten metal is ladled into the
• The weight of most of the casting ranges from 90 g to about cold chamber for each shot.
25 kg
• There is less time exposure of the melt to the plunger walls or
• Equipment costs are high, but labor costs are generally low. the plunger.
• Die-casting is economical for large production runs

• Two types of hot chamber process and cold-chamber

process

Hot chamber Pressure Die casting Centrifugal casting

• In a hot chamber process the chamber is also heated
• Utilizes inertial forces (caused by rotation) to distribute molten
• To improve die life and to maintain rapid metal cooling dies are metal into the mold cavities
cooled by circulating water or oil through various passageways
in the die block

Centrifugal casting
• Advantages:

• Improved homogeneity
• Improved accuracy in special circumstances

• Disadvantage:

• Limitations on casting shape

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Summary Comparison summary

Thanks!

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