Casting Processes

ME 338: Manufacturing Processes II

Prof. Rakesh G Mote
Office: S-38, 2nd Floor, ME Department, IIT Bombay
Lab.: Machine Tools Lab / Metrology Lab
[email protected]
Manufacturing Processes

M Groover: Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing

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 Casting

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 Casting
• Copper Age (7700-3300 BCE)
• The Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE)
• Iron Age (1200 BCE onwards)
• Industrial Age (18th Century-)

Casting is the production of a solid

metal item by allowing liquid metal
to solidify in a shaped mould.

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 Casting in perspective
• By the turn of the 21st Century, it was estimated that
cast metal products had found their way into 90
percent of manufactured goods and equipment,
from surgical equipment through automobile parts
and aviation technologies

“You are never more than 10 feet away from a casting”

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Liquid Materials Processing

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Sand Casting: Open and Closed

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Sand Casting: Closed

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Sand Casting: Steps

Kalpakjian • Schmid
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 Sand Casting: Gating System
• Pouring cup
– A funnel that allows metal to be
poured into the mould.
• Down sprue
– The passageway through which the
molten metal enters the mould.
• Runners and gates
– Channels that connect the down
sprue with the risers and convey the
molten metal into the mould cavity
• Risers
– Vertical cylinders that compensate
for shrinkage as the molten metal
solidifies
• Vents
– Escape channels for gases/vapors
released during solidification

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 Sand Casting: Patterns and Cores
• Pattern is the replica of the part to be cast and is used to
prepare the mould cavity

(a) solid pattern, (b) split pattern, (c) match-plate pattern

(d) cope-and-drag pattern

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 Sand Casting: Patterns and Cores
• Core is used to produce the hollow sections, the entry of the liquid metal
is prevented by having a core in corresponding portion of the mould
cavity.
• Cores must posses strength, permeability, ability to withstand heat, and
collapsibility, therefore cores are made of sand aggregates. Cores are
removed from casting by shakeout and further processing.
• The projections on the pattern for locating the core in the mould are
called as Core Prints

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 Cores
Cover core (covers the Vertical core
parting plane completely)

Drop Core

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 Core Support: Chaplets

• Chaplets are used to support the cores that are long and
cannot be supported by sand,
• Chaplets will melt and become a part of the casting eventually

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 Pattern Making: Pattern Allowances
• Shrinkage Allowance
– Accounts for the shrinkage of solid casting from the
freezing temperature to the room temperature
Material Dimension Shrinkage
allowance (inch/ft)

Grey Cast Iron Up to 2 feet 0.125

2 feet to 4 feet 0.105
over 4 feet 0.083
Cast Steel Up to 2 feet 0.251
2 feet to 6 feet 0.191
over 6 feet 0.155
Aluminum Up to 4 feet 0.155
4 feet to 6 feet 0.143
over 6 feet 0.125
Magnesium Up to 4 feet 0.173
Over 4 feet 0.155

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The casting shown is to be made in cast iron
using a wooden pattern. Assuming only
shrinkage allowance, calculate the dimension
of the pattern.
All Dimensions are in Inches

The shrinkage allowance for cast iron for size up to 2 feet is 0.125 inch per feet

18 inch, allowance = 18 X 0.125 / 12 = 0.1875 inch » 0.2 inch

14 inch, allowance = 14 X 0.125 / 12 = 0.146 inch » 0.15 inch

8 inch, allowance = 8 X 0.125 / 12 = 0.0833 inch » 0. 09 inch

6 inch, allowance = 6 X 0.125 / 12 = 0.0625 inch » 0. 07 inch

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 Pattern Allowances
• Machining Allowance
– For final application, cast components may be subjected to
machining for required tolerances, surface characteristics
• Distortion Allowance

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 Pattern Allowances
• Draft Allowance (0.5 to 2 degree)

• Rapping or Shake Allowance

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Pattern Allowances

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 Mold Sand
• Should withstand the high temperatures and holds
its shape
• Should not reacting chemically with the metal in the
sand mould
• Rapidly curing
• Allow gasses to escape during the pour and the
solidification process
• Flow smoothly through the running system to all
areas of the mould.
• Making it easy to separate the sand from the casting
at the end of the sand-casting process
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 Mold Sand Properties
• Common Sand: Silica or Zircon (ZrSiO4)
• Sand grains are held together by a mixture of water and bonding clay.
– A typical mixture (by volume) is 90% sand, 3% water, and 7% clay.
– Other bonding agents can be used in place of clay, including organic resins
(e.g., phenolic resins) and inorganic binders (e.g., sodium silicate and
phosphate).
• Green strength: Compressive/shear strength
– Range: 30 – 160 kPa / 10 – 50 kPa
• Dry strength: Compressive/shear strength of the dry sand (moisture
removed by heating to 105-110 C for 2 hrs)
– Range: 140 – 1800 kPa
• Permeability – Ability of the sand to allow gasses to pass through
A porous material has permeability equal
Permeability number: to 1 Darcy if a pressure difference of 1 atm
will produce a flow rate of 1 cm3/sec of a
• Hot strength fluid with 1 cP viscosity through a cube
having side 1 cm in length
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 Mold Sand Properties
• Refractoriness → ability to withstand high temperatures.

• Flowability → ease of filling and collapse

• Moisture content → permeability, strength

• Clay content → strength, hot-resistance

• Sand grain size → finishing/permeability

• Interlocking (Shape) → rigidity

• Collapsibility → ability to permit metal to shrink after solidification and

also to disintegrate during “knock-out”

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Mold Sand Properties

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 Sand Molding

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 Shell Molding

• Can form complex shapes and fine details; High production rate; Low labor cost (if automated);
• The surface of the shell mold cavity is smoother than a conventional green-sand mold, and this
smoothness permits easier flow of molten metal during pouring and better surface finish on the
final casting
• More expensive metal pattern than the corresponding pattern for green-sand molding.

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 Shell Molding

• Metal casting patterns manufactured on the basis of 3D-CAD.

• The patterns are mounted on plates together with the casting system.
• In the moulding machine the pattern plates are heated to approx. 220°C, then artificial
resin-coated quartz sand is poured on them.
• By controlling time and temperature, two mould halves with a minimal and thus very
economic wall thickness are generated, hence the name “shell”.
• Two shells are glued together to form the cavity that holds the molten metal.
• After the mold goes through a cooling process, the sand shell is stripped from the casting.
• The sand may be recycled and the part is ready for machining or surface finishing.
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 Shell Molding

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Investment Casting – Lost Wax Process

making of wax patterns pouring of molten metal into

assembly clay mold after draining the wax

breaking the clay mold to get

finished weapons
the solidified casting
Taylor, P.R., 1983. An illustrated history of lost wax casting
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 https://youtu.be/H_RAnPJ4jdw
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Investment Shell Casting – Lost Wax Process

Kalpakjian • Schmid
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Investment Flask Casting – Lost Wax Process

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 Investment Casting – Lost Wax Process

A high temperature gas turbine

blade produced by investment
casting

With low melting point metals Plaster ( CaSO4)

moulds and either wax or re-usable (rubber)
patterns can be used for small, accurate
castings
(e.g. aluminium turbocharger impellers).

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Investment Casting

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Permanent Mold Casting

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 Die-Casting: Hot Chamber

• The injection system is immersed in pool of molten metal. The furnace is

attached to the machine via a feeding system called a gooseneck.
• The hot-chamber process is suitable materials with low melting
temperature like zinc and magnesium alloys.
• It is not used for aluminum alloys as they readily react with steel eroding
the immersed steel of the hot-chamber injection mechanism.
• The plunger and cylinder, which constitute the injection mechanism
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 Die-Casting: Cold Chamber

Shot sleeve

• A ladle is used to transport the molten metal from the holding furnace into the unheated
shot chamber or injection cylinder. This metal is then shot into the die by using a hydraulic
piston.
• Relatively slower compared to the Hot Chamber Die Casting process.
• Primarily used for manufacturing aluminum parts as molten aluminum alloys have a tendency
to attack and erode the metal cylinders, plungers and dies greatly shortening their tool life.

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 Filling of the die

a) Filling the shot sleeve,

b) First phase : injection of metal close to the cavity and escape of the air,
c) Second and third phase : filling of the die cavity and application of
shrinkage compensation pressure,
d) Extraction and ejection of the casting.
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Solidification structure of the metal inside the
metal die
A : Cortical layer,
• thickness 0.1 – 0.3 mm,
• A function of the thermal gradient between the
alloy and the die
• Very fine compact metallic grain

B : Dendritic zone
• crystalline arms proceeding from the outside
towards the inside ;
• coarser metal grain ;
• presence of interdendritic voids and porosity ;

C : Thermal barycentre zone, the last to solidify ;

• coarse metal grain ;
• interdendritic voids between the individual
crystalline structures;
• porosity and formation of shrinkage cavities.

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 Extraction
• Function of cooling time
• The extraction can be carried out when the
solidification is complete and the mean temperature
has fallen to a value between 350 and 250°C.
• Optimal cooling time. If extracted
– Too early or at higher temperatures: Brittle, distortions
– Too late: Shrinkages make extraction difficult if intricate
features are present

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 Die Casting

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 Die Casting
• Economical for large quantities of complex, high
tolerance parts in aluminium, magnesium, zinc
and copper alloys.
• Durability
• Mass production at high speed
• Thinner Wall Castings:
Compared with sand and permanent mold castings,
the die casting process is able to produce parts with
thinner walls due to the high pressure during the
injection process. This allows lightweight
construction as well as eliminate or reduce the need
of secondary operations.
• Casting with inserts:
The die casting process allows inserts to be cast-in to
form certain features such as threaded inserts,
heating elements or high strength bearing surfaces.

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Centrifugal Casting

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Semi-Centrifugal and Centrifuge Casting

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 Continuous Casting

• More than 90% of the world’s steel production is manufactured by continuous casting
• Smaller cross-sectional shapes (slabs, bars, rods, etc.) can be produced directly from
the liquid metal with the continuous casting process

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 Continuous Casting

• Liquid steel is fed from the melting units into a tundish, from which it is conducted
into the water-cooled copper mold by a submerged entry nozzle (SEN).

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 Casting: Summary
• When to use
✓ Four or more operations are
required for other processes.
✓ Weight and/or cost reductions are
desired.
✓ The part’s geometry is complex.
✓ A design is stacking up tolerances
through assembly processes.
• When not to use
✓ The part has simple geometry, like a
bracket or laser-cut component.
✓ Tooling costs would not justify
casting.
✓ A smooth surface is a primary
objective.

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