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“DESIGN OF RISERS” posted by Thapar Institute of
Engineering & Technology is purely for education
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UME 505: MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

DESIGN OF RISERS

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Introduction
• The function of a riser is to feed the casting during solidification so that no
shrinkage cavities are formed.
• The requirement of risers depends to a great extent upon the type of metal
poured and the complexity of the casting.
• Grey cast iron sometimes may have a negative shrinkage, which happens
because with higher carbon and silicon contents, graphitisation occurs
which increases the volume and, therefore, would counteract the metal
shrinkage and as such risering may not be very critical.
• But for some metals such as aluminium and steel, the volumetric
contraction being very high, elaborate risering is required.
• The term directional solidification is normally used in the casting
terminology. It means that the solidification of the metal should start at
the remotest point of the casting from the feeder.
• Since the cooling is achieved by the removal of heat from all surfaces
which are exposed to the atmosphere or sand, cooling normally starts
from point which is the thinnest or is exposed over a larger surface area.
UME 505: MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

• Figure shows a cube which is completely filled with liquid metal.

• With time, the metal starts losing heat through all sides and as a result
starts freezing from all sides equally trapping the liquid metal inside.
• But further solidification and volumetric shrinkage and the metal
contraction due to change in temperature causes formation of a void.
• The solidification when complete, finally results in the shrinkage cavity.

• The reason for the formation of the void in the above cube casting is that
the liquid metal in the centre which solidifies in the end is not fed during
the solidification; hence the liquid shrinkage occurred ends up as a void.
• Such isolated spots, which remain hot till the end, are called ‘hot spots’. It
is the endeavour of the casting designer to reduce all these hot spots so
that no shrinkage cavities occur.
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Solidification Time
• Whether the casting is pure metal or alloy, solidification takes time. The
total solidification time is the time required for the casting to solidify after
pouring.
• This time is dependent on the size and shape of the casting by an empirical
relationship known as Chvorinov’s rule, which states:

where TTS = total solidification time, min; V = volume of the casting, cm3;
A = surface area of the casting, cm2 ; n is an exponent usually taken to have
a value 2; and Cm is the mold constant.
• The value of Cm for a given casting operation can be based on experimental
data from previous operations carried out using the same mold material,
metal, and pouring temperature, even though the shape of the part may be
quite different.
• Chvorinov’s rule indicates that a casting with a higher volume-to-surface
area ratio will cool and solidify more slowly than one with a lower ratio.

UME 505: MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

• To perform its function of feeding molten metal to the main cavity, the
metal in the riser must remain in the liquid phase longer than the
casting.
• In other words, the TTS for the riser must exceed the TTS for the main
casting.
• Since the mold conditions for both riser and casting are the same, their
mold constants will be equal.
• By designing the riser to have a larger volume-to-area ratio, the main
casting will most likely solidify first and the effects of shrinkage will be
minimized.

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Riser Design by Caine’s Method

Based on the Chvorinov’s rule, Caine developed a relationship
empirically for the freezing ratio as follows:

The ‘freezing ratio’, X of a mould is defined as the ratio of cooling

characteristics of casting to the riser.

a, b and c are constants whose values for different materials are given in
Table

UME 505: MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

• The above equation when plotted will be as shown in Fig.

• The line shows the locus of the points that separate the sound
castings and castings with shrinkages in steel castings.

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Modulus Method
• Another method for finding the optimum riser size is the ‘modulus
method’.
• It has been empirically established that if the modulus of the riser exceeds
the modulus of the casting by a factor of 1.2, the feeding during
solidification would be satisfactory.
• The modulus is the inverse of the cooling characteristic (surface
area/volume).
• In steel castings, it is generally preferable to choose a riser with a height to
diameter ratio of 1.

• The bottom end of the riser is in contact with the casting and thus does
not contribute to the calculation of surface area.

• The modulus of such a cylindrical riser, Mr would be

Mr = 0.2 D
• Since Mr = 1.2 Mc; D = 6 Mc where Mc = modulus of the casting.
UME 505: MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

• Thus, in this method, the calculation of

the riser size is simplified to the
calculation of the modulus of the
casting itself.
• Though this takes into account the
cooling effect of the riser, it does not
consider exactly the amount of feeding
metal required to compensate for the
shrinkage of the casting.
• For those ‘rangy’ castings, similar to
plate like, the influence of volume
component becomes increasingly
significant. It is sometimes useful to
have a parameter called “ranginess
factor” R to define the casting type. It
may be defined as

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• Rao, P.N., Manufacturing Technology Volume 1, McGraw Hill

Education (India) Private Ltd.
• Groover, M.P., Principles of Modern Manufacturing, John Wiley
and Sons (2011).

UME 505: MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

THANK YOU

UME 505: MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY