MEE 2014 METAL CASTING

TECHNOLOGY
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Principle of Electromagnetic Stirring

Melting practices –
Fluxing degassing, inoculation and grain refinement
Heat treatment
Principle of Electromagnetic Stirring METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• It is well known that an alternating magnetic field (B) applied to a conductor,

whether solid or fluid, will induce electric current (j) in the conductor, and hence
there is a force (F = j x B) known as Lorentz force.
• Due to the Lorentz force there is a generation of a torque that gives the liquid steel a
rotational movement.

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Principle of electromagnetic stirring Cont. METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
The generated torque depends on the
following factors.

• Intensity of supply current

• Number of windings forming a coil

• Frequency

• System geometry

These parameters change depending on the stirrer

type.

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 METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
Principle of electromagnetic stirring Cont.

• Thus the magnetic field acts as a non-intrusive stirring device and it

can, in principle, be engineered to provide any desired pattern of
stirring.
• The stirrer design, size and position etc. depend on the continuous
casting machine data, the steel grades to be produced and the casting
parameters.

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Principle of Electro Magnetic Stirring (EMS) Cont. METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• Electromagnetic melt stirring systems create a rotating magnetic induction field with
an induction of ‘B’, which induces eddy current ‘j’ in a direction perpendicular to ‘B’,
whose velocity is ‘v’.
• Induction B and current j create the electromagnetic force, which works on every unit
of volume of steel and bring about a stirring motion in the liquid steel.
• The vector product (v x B) demonstrate a connection between the electromagnetic
field and the flow of the liquid steel.
• The speeds of the liquid steel caused by the EMS is somewhere in the range of 0.1 m/s
- 1.0 m/s.

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 Types of Electro Magnetic Stirring (EMS) METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

There are three possible EMS

applications in a continuous casting
machine according to the position
and the required effects on the cast
products.
• These places are, Mould (M-EMS)

• Secondary cooling zone (S-EMS)

• Final solidification zone (F-EMS).

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Melting practices METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• Melting practice is an important aspect of casting

operations because it has a direct bearing on the quality
of castings.
• Furnaces are charged with melting stock consisting of
metal, alloying elements and various other materials
such as flux and slag-forming constituents.
• Fluxes are inorganic compounds that refine the molten
metal by removing dissolved gas and various impurities

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Melting practices Cont. METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
• Fluxes have several functions, depending on the metal.

• For example, for aluminium alloys,

• Cover fluxes (to form a barrier to oxidation)

• Cleaning fluxes
• Drossing fluxes
• Refining fluxes
• Wall-cleaning fluxes
• Fluxes may be added manually (or) can be injected automatically into the
molten metal.
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Melting practices Cont. METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• Fluxes for aluminium consist of chlorides, fluorides and borates

of aluminium, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium.
• For cast iron include sodium carbonate and calcium fluoride.
• To protect the surface of the molten metal against atmosphere
reaction and contamination and to refine the melt, the metal
must be insulated against heat loss.

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Melting practices Cont. METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• Insulation is usually providing by covering the surface (or)

mixing the melt with compounds that form a slag.

• The metal charge may compose of commercially pure
primary metals, which are re-melted scrap.

• Clean scrapped castings, gates and risers may also be

included in the charge

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Melting practices Cont. METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• If the melting points of the alloying elements are sufficiently

low, pure alloying elements are added to obtain the
desired composition in the melt.
• If the melting points of the alloying elements are too high they do
not mix readily with the low melting point metals.
• In this case, master alloys or hardeners are often used. They
usually consist of lower melting point alloys with higher
concentrations of one or two of the needed alloying elements.
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Fluxing the Melt METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• In metallurgical circles, “flux” is defined as “a substance that can be added to a

molten alloy to entrain impurities in a fusible mass, making them easy to remove”.

• When we dig up an ore out of the ground and process it, there are invariably

problematic impurities carried along with it.

• The nature of these impurities will vary from ore to ore, but the general concept of

using a flux to combine with these impurities to form a fusible slag, allowing their

easy removal has value throughout the industry.

• The use of a flux to purify metals is a simple, brute force chemical separation.
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 METAL CASTING
• As with any separation process,TECHNOLOGY
fluxes can be alkaline (e.g. calcium carbonate), acidic
(e.g. silica) or neutral (e.g. calcium fluoride).

• What kind of flux gets used depends on the nature of the ore, its impurities and the
requirements for the separation.

• Silicate fluxes are commonly used throughout the metal industry, but have little
application for lead processing because their melting temperatures are much too high.

• Fluxes can also be oxidizing (or) reducing, and can be used to selectively remove a
targeted impurity by oxidizing it (or) reducing it.

• Oxidizing fluxes include the various peroxides (lead, manganese and sodium are the
most common), and nitrates (sodium and potassium) which are used in refining precious
metals
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Heat Treatment METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• Castings are often heat treated to enhance properties

• Reasons for heat treating a casting:

– For subsequent processing operations such as machining

– To bring out the desired properties for the application of the part in

service

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TECHNOLOGY

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METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

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TECHNOLOGY

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METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

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TECHNOLOGY

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INOCULATION METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• Inoculation is a means to control and improve the

microstructure and mechanical properties of cast iron.
• The inoculation process will provide sufficient nucleation
sites for the dissolved carbon to precipitate as graphite
rather than iron carbides (cementite).
• The most common inoculant is a ferrosilicon based alloy
with small and defined quantities of either Ca, Ba, Sr, Zr, rare
earth’s and Al.

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INOCULATION METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

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INOCULATION METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• Consequently, the effects of grey and ductile iron inoculation

are improved machinability, increased strength and ductility,
reduced hardness and section sensitivity and a more
homogeneous microstructure.
• Typically, inoculation also reduces the tendency for
solidification shrinkage formation.

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INOCULATION METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

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INOCULATION METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
• The grey iron microstructure is normally determined by the base iron, composition, the solidification
cooling rate and the inoculation process.

shows different grey iron

microstructures as a function of
solidification undercooling

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INOCULATION METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
• The required addition rate of an inoculant to liquid iron is very much depending on where
and when it is to be introduced.

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 METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
In order to obtain a sound and reproducible iron production process some
critical inoculation factors will have to be controlled properly.
For grey iron one should pay special attention to the following factors:
• The Mn : S ratio should be maintained at the same level every time and
sulphur should referentially be kept at minimum 0.05%.
• Aluminium is found to be an important part of the nucleus core and
should be adjusted and kept at controlled levels every time.
• Recommended residual Al level in grey iron is 0.005% - 0.01% for
optimum inoculation effectiveness.
• There should be a certain oxygen level in the base iron from fresh metal
processing.

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 METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY

• The use of some rusty raw materials may assist in providing a

good oxygen potential.

• Pouring time after inoculation should be minimized in order to

keep fading losses under control.

• Use an inoculant with defined chemical composition and

sizing.
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 METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
For ductile iron, the following factors must be controlled:

• The magnesium treatment process reactivity should be controlled and

minimized. A violent treatment process will provide less potential

nucleation sites and more difficult conditions for powerful inoculation

effectiveness.

• There should be a certain oxygen level in the base iron from fresh metal

processing. The use of some rusty raw materials may assist in providing

a good oxygen potential.

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 METAL CASTING
TECHNOLOGY
For ductile iron, the following factors must be controlled:

• The sulphur content should be kept low and constant. Preferential

range for ductile iron is 0.005 to 0.015% base iron sulphur content.

• Pouring time after inoculation should be minimized in order to

keep fading losses under control.

• Use an inoculant with defined chemical composition and sizing.

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 METAL CASTING
Degassing and Grain refinementTECHNOLOGY
treatments
• Degassing of molten Aluminum is used to remove dissolved hydrogen and
impurity particles prior to casting.
• The most common method, rotary degassing, gives a small bubble size and
distributes the bubbles throughout the melt by means of vigorous stirring.
• This is an efficient method for hydrogen removal, the purge gas may also
inadvertently remove grain refining particles and thus reduce refinement
efficiency.
• During degassing, particle removal occurs by physical attachment to the
degassing bubbles and flotation, by turbulent transport due to the flow field
generated by stirring, (or) by sedimentation.
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 METAL CASTING
Degassing and Grain refinementTECHNOLOGY
treatments
• High quality products need to be produced without any defects.
• Typically, it has been aimed to obtain finer grain structure by
addition of grain refiners.
• It has been shown that the level of impurity decrease with
increased area of grain boundary and decreased grain size .
• For Al-Si alloys, Al-Ti-B grain refiners can be added to alter the
coarse α-Al to finer dendrites without changing the
morphology of eutectic Si .

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 METAL CASTING
Degassing and Grain refinementTECHNOLOGY
treatments

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 METAL CASTING
Degassing and Grain refinementTECHNOLOGY
treatments
• The degassing process in the treatment of aluminium melts are
typically carried out to decrease the hydrogen content of the melt.

• it is expected to obtain minimised porosity in cast parts.

• when a grain refiner is added to the melt, the globular and

homogeneous dendritic structure will results in faster growth and
bifilms may not find the time open; thus porosity will not form.

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 METAL CASTING
Degassing and Grain refinementTECHNOLOGY
treatments

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