Gating System

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]
Recall: Casting - Steps

Kalpakjian • Schmid
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 Pouring Time
• Too long
– Requires high pouring temperature
• Too small
– Turbulence, casting defects
• Function of material, volume/weight of the casting,
complexity, section thickness
– Empirical relations based on experience

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Pouring time: Empirical relations

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 Types of Gates
• Top gates
– Mold erosion
– Gray irons, not used with non-
ferrous alloys
• Parting gates
– Easy construction
– Mold erosion
• Bottom gates
– Minimal mold erosion
– Unfavourable temperature
gradients

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 Vertical and Bottom Gating

The molten metal is poured from top, but

The liquid metal is poured
filled from bottom to top. This minimizes
vertically, directly to fill the mould
oxidation and splashing while pouring.
• Proper distribution of molten metal without excessive
temperature loss, turbulence, gas entrapping and slags
• Not to be too slow or too fast
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 Sprue Design and Aspiration Effect
• Vertical Gating Bernoulli’s equation:

• At 1:
v1 = 0 since the level is maintained
p1 is at atmospheric pressure
• At 3:
p1 = p3 i.e. atmospheric pressure

velocity at the sprue base: 𝑣3 = 2𝑔ℎ𝑡

Continuity equation: Volumetric flow rate, Q = A2v2 = A3v3

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 Sprue Design and Aspiration Effect
• Vertical Gating Applying Bernauli’s equation at 2 and 3:
h3 = 0 and p3 = 0 (i.e. open to atm)
𝑝2 (𝑣32 −𝑣22 )
= − ℎ2
𝜌𝑔 2𝑔

If the sprue is straight, A2 = A3

Then, v2 = v3 Continuity Equation
⇒ 𝑝2 = −𝜌𝑔ℎ2

The negative pressure will cause air/gases

into the stream leading to aspiration effect
We need: p2 = 0

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 Sprue Design and Aspiration Effect
• The negative pressure will cause
air/gases into the stream leading to
aspiration effect, we need: p2 = 0
• From Continuity equation 𝐴2 𝑣2 = 𝐴3 𝑣3
𝐴3
gives 𝑣2 = 𝑣3
𝐴2
• Again applying Bernoulli’s eq for 2 and 3:
2
𝑣32 𝐴3 𝑣32
ℎ2 + =
2𝑔 𝐴2 2𝑔
• Velocity at the sprue base: 𝑣3 = 2𝑔ℎ𝑡 ⇒ 𝐴3 = ℎ𝑐
𝐴2 ℎ𝑡

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 Examples
A sprue is 30.5 cm long and has a diameter of 12.7 cm
at the top, where the metal is poured. The molten
metal level in the pouring basin is taken as 7.6 cm from
the top of the sprue for design purposes.
• If a flow rate of 655 cc/s is to be achieved, what
should be the diameter of the bottom of the sprue?
Ans: 2.7 sq cm

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 Sprue Design: Bottom Gating
• Bottom gating involves
pouring against the head
that builds up as the mold
gets filled

• At 3, p3 is not zero!

𝑝3 𝑣32
Bernoulli’s equation between point 1 and 3: ℎ𝑡 = +
𝜌𝑔 2𝑔
Bernoulli’s equation between point 3 and 4:
(Note: v4 is very small and v3 is lost as the 𝑝3 = 𝜌𝑔ℎ
liquid enters the mold)

Velocity of the liquid metal at the gate

𝑣𝑔 = 𝑣3 = 2𝑔(ℎ𝑡 − ℎ)
or the gate velocity, vg

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 Time to fill a mold cavity
• Assume that gate and mold c/s areas are Ag and Am respectively.
• It take time element ‘dt’ to raise the liquid level ‘dh’ in the mold
cavity.
𝐴𝑔 𝑉𝑔 ⅆ𝑡 = 𝐴𝑚 ⅆℎ
𝐴𝑔 ⅆℎ
ⅆ𝑡 =
𝐴𝑚 2𝑔(ℎ𝑡 − ℎ)
If tf is time required to fill the mold cavity of height hm
𝑡𝑓 ℎ=ℎ𝑚
𝐴𝑔 ⅆℎ
න ⅆ𝑡 = න
𝐴𝑚 2𝑔(ℎ𝑡 − ℎ)
𝑡=0 ℎ=0

𝐴𝑚 2
⇒ 𝑡𝑓 =
𝐴𝑔 𝑔
ℎ𝑡 − ℎ𝑡 − ℎ𝑚

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 Examples
• Find filling time:

Ans: 21.9 sec

Ans: 43 sec

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 Aspiration Effect
• Sudden change in flow direction

d’ ≈ 1.5d

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Effect of pressure head and change in gate
design on the velocity of metal flow

High frictional losses will require a greater

pressure head to maintain a given flow velocity
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 Pouring Basin/cup: Impurities, turbulence etc

reduces the
eroding force
reduces the eroding force and
constant pouring head
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 Gating Ratio
• Gating ratio – x : y : z
x = sprue base (or sprue-runner) c/s area
y = total c/s area of all the runners GATE-RUNNER
z = total c/s area of all in-gates (pressurized) system
• Generally, the runner area is chosen to
be slightly greater than the smallest
down-sprue area.
• Must ensure the runner full throughout
its entire length and uniform flow
through all of the gates.
• Choke area SPRUE-RUNNER
– Choke is that cross sectional area in a (non-pressurized) system
gating system which determines mould
filling time
– Pressurized Vs Non-pressurized systems

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 Gating Ratio
• Pressurized Castings
– Gate area is smallest => maintains backpressure
– High chances of turbulence at gate
– Accurate filling of cavity
– Suitable for ferrous or heavy alloys e.g. 1 : 2 : 1.5
• Non-pressurized Castings
– Sprue base area smallest
– Minimum turbulence
– Suitable for Al, Mg alloys which are sensitive to oxidation
e.g. 1 : 4 : 4 or 1 : 4 : 8
• However, with the development of computational tools,
a gating ratio is often an output not the input to the
design

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 Choke Area Calculations
𝑊
𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑘𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 =
𝜌𝑡𝐶 2𝑔𝐻
W : casting mass
t : pouring time
 : mass density of the molten metal
C : efficiency of the used gating system

The value of H can be estimated as:

a) For top gate
H=h
b) For bottom gate
H = h – c/2
b) For parting line gate
H = h – p2/2c
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 Gating Ratio
The cross section area of the runner should be
reduced in size as each gate is passed.

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 Gating Ratio

1/4”

3/8”

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If pouring time is 20s, find choke area if efficiency factor is 0.73
Density is 6.9e-6 kg/mm3

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If pouring time is 20s, find choke are if efficiency factor is 0.73
Density is 6.9e-6 kg/mm3
Assume pressurized gating system

𝑊
𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑘𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 =
𝜌𝑡𝐶 2𝑔𝐻

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 Riser (or feeder) Design
• Extra metal needs to be fed to the solidifying casting to compensate
for the contraction on freezing
• Riser/feeder must NOT solidify before casting!
• Consideration must be given to Casting Yield.
• The freezing time of any solidifying body is approximately
controlled by its ratio (volume)/(cooling surface area)
• Riser to have maximum V/A ratio and minimum volume (~ 3 times
the volume required from shrinkage consideration)
• Design Issues: Size and Shape, placement etc

Genealized Modulus: Freezing ratio: Volume ratio:

Chvorinov's rule
𝑉
𝑉 𝑛 𝑉 𝐴 𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑉𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑟
𝑡𝑠 = 𝐶 𝑀= 𝑋=
𝑉 𝑌=
𝐴 𝐴 𝑉𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝐴 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔
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 Examples
1. A plate 25x25x0.25 cm along with a cubical riser of 1.25 cm
side. The steel shrinks by 3% during solidification. Comment
on cooling and volume match.
2. The volume shrinkage for Al casting of cube (15 cm side) is
6.5%. Design a cylindrical riser to compensate for shrinkage.
Side riser vs top riser
3. A cylindrical riser is to be designed for a steel rectangular
plate, 7.5x12.5x2.0 cm casting. The plate found be solidified
in 1.6 min. The aspect ratio of the riser is 1. Determine the
dimensions of the riser so that it solidifies in 2.0 min.

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 Riser Design

Neck: ease to cut off

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 Riser Design
• Directional solidification
– Use of Chills
– Sleeves/topping

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 Caine Method
• Caine equation corelates the freezing ratio (X) of the casting to
the volume ratio (Y)
𝒂 a : freezing constant c : constant depending upon
𝑿= −𝒄 b : contraction ratio medium around casting, riser
𝒀−𝒃

Caine equation
Volume Ratio (𝑌)

𝑉
𝑉𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝐴 𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑟
𝑌= 𝑋=
𝑉𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑉
𝐴 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔

Freeaing Ratio (𝑋)

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 Naval Research Lab (NRL) Method
• Simplified Caine method as Caine method requires 𝑙+𝑤
tedious calculations for complex shape casting Shape Factor =
𝑡
• Shape factor is used in place of freezing ratio. Maximum length (l)
• The total casting vol. is taken as the vol. of the Maximum width (w)
main section plus the effective percentage of the Maximum thickness (t)
appendage volume, called the parasitic volume.
Parasitic Volume
Volume Ratio

Shape Factor

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 NRL Method
Neglecting the branch
Volume of casting = 25x12.5x5 = 1562.5 cm3

Shape factor = (l + w) / t = (25+12.5)/5 = 7.5

From Riser selection chart:

For a shape factor of 7.5, Volume ratio is 0.58

Riser Volume
= Volume Ratio x Casting Volume
= 0.58 x 1562.5 = 906.25 cm3
Now, branch volume = 10 x 2.5 x 2.5 = 62.5 cm3
Main casting is plate like and the branch is bar like; the thickness ratio is 0.5
From chart, take Parasitic volume as 30%
Riser Volume = 906.25 + 0.3 x 62.5 = 925 cm3
Riser diameter = 5.3 cm

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 Casting Yield
• All the metal poured in the mold doesn’t end up into
the final casting alone!
• Sprues, runners, gates, risers etc.

𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠

𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙ⅆ = × 100
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑒ⅆ

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 Summary
• Gating System
– Bernoulli's equation and continuity equation
– Aspiration effect
• Filling time
• Gating Ratio
– Pressurized casting
– Unpressurized casting
• Casting Yield

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