CASTINGS DEFECTS (CFW Lab)
A casting defect is an irregularity in the metal casting process that is very undesired.
They are broken down into five main categories:
1. Gas defects.
2. Shrinkage defects.
3. Mould material defects.
4. Pouring metal defects.
5. Metallurgical defects.
1. Gas defects - A condition existing in a casting caused by the trapping of gas in the molten
metal or by mold gases evolved during the pouring of the casting. The defects in this category
can be classified into blowholes and pinhole porosity.
1.(a) Blow holes - Gases are formed when molten metal is poured. If these gases could not
out, blow holes come will result in the casting. Blow holes are spherical, flattened or
elongated cavities present in the casting.
Figure 1.a
Causes Remedies
• Excessive moisture in the sand. • The moisture content in the sand must
• Low Permeability of the sand. be controlled and kept at desired level.
• Sand grains are too fine • High permeability sand should be used.
• Too hard rammed sand. • Sand of appropriate grain size should
• Insufficient venting is provided. be used.
• Sufficient ramming should be done.
• Adequate venting facility should be
provided.
1.(b) Pinhole porosity - Occurs due to the dissolution of hydrogen gas, which gets entrapped
during heating of molten metal and hole size less than 2 mm diameter.
Figure 1.b
Causes Remedies
• Use of high moisture content sand. • By reducing the moisture content of
• Absorption of hydrogen or carbon the moulding sand.
monoxide gas by molten metal. • Increasing permeability of the sand.
• Pouring of steel from wet ladles or • By doing rapid rate of solidification.
not sufficiently gasified.
[Link] defects - These are caused by liquid shrinkage occurring during the solidification
of the casting. To compensate for this, proper feeding of liquid metal is required. For this
reason risers are placed at the appropriate places in the mould.
Figure 2.
Causes Remedies
• Improper risers • Proper rising system depending upon
• Incorrect pouring temperature the thickness of casting
• Incorrect gating design • Correct pouring temperature
• Improper use of chills and padding • Correct gating design
• Proper use of chills and padding
3. Moulding material defects - The defects in this category are cuts and washes, metal
penetration.
3.(a) Cut and washes - These appear as rough spots and areas of excess metal, and are caused
by erosion of moulding sand by the flowing metal. This is caused by the moulding sand not
having enough strength and the molten metal flowing at high velocity. The former can be
taken care of by the proper choice of moulding sand and the latter can be overcome by the
proper design of the gating system.
Figure 3.a
3.(b) Metal penetration - Molten metal penetrating the sand, causing will have very rough
external surface.
Figure 3.b
Causes Remedies
• Low strength. • High strength.
• Large grain size. • Small grain size.
• High permeability. • Low permeability.
• Soft ramming of sand. • Hard ramming of sand.
4. Pouring metal defects - The likely defects in this category are.
4.(a) Mis-run - When the molten metal solidifies before completely filling the mold cavity
and leaves a space in the mold called as misrun.
Figure 4.a
Causes Remedies
• Low fluidity of molten metal • Increasing the pouring temperature
• Improper gating design of the molten metal, increases the
system. fluidity.
• Too thin section and • Proper gating system.
improper gating system. • Too thin section is avoided.
4.(b) Cold shut - It is a type of surface defects and a line on the surface can be seen. When the
molten metal enters into the mould from two gates and when these two streams of molten
metal meet at a junction with low temperatures than they do not fuse with each other and
solidifies creating a cold shut (appear as line on the casting). It looks like a crack with round
edge.
Figure 4.b
Causes Remedies
• Poor gating system. • Improved gating system.
• Low melting temperature. • Proper pouring temperature.
• Lack of fluidity. • Improved fluidity.
4.(c) Slag inclusion - This defect is caused when the molten metal containing slag particles is
poured in the mould cavity and it gets solidifies.
Figure 4.c
Causes Remedies
• The presence of slag in the • Remove slag particles form the
molten metal molten metal before pouring it into
the mould cavity.
5. Metallurgical defects - There are two defects in this category: hot tears and hot spots.
5.(a) Hot tears – These are hot cracks which appear in the form of irregular crevices with a
dark oxidized fracture surface. They arise when the solidifying met does not have sufficient
strength to resist tensile forces produced during solidification.
Figure 5.a
Causes Remedies
• Improper mould design. • Proper mould design can easily
eliminate these types of casting
defects.
• Elimination of residual stress from
the material of the casting.
5.(b) Hot spots - Hot spot defects occur when an area on the casting cools more rapidly than
the surrounding materials. Hot spot are areas on the casting which is harder than the
surrounding area. It is also called as hard spot.
Causes Remedies
• The rapid cooling an area of the • This defect can be avoided by using
casting than the surrounding proper cooling practice.
materials causes this defect. • By changing the chemical
composition of the metal.
Some other defects in casting
1. Shift or Mismatch - The defect caused due to misalignment of upper and lower part of the
casting and misplacement of the core at parting line.
Figure 1.
Causes Remedies
• Improper alignment of upper and • Proper alignment of the pattern or die
lower part during mould preparation. part, moulding boxes.
• Misalignment of flask (a flask is • Correct mountings of pattern on
type of tool which is used to contain pattern plates.
a mould in metal casting. it may be • Check the alignment of flask.
square, round, rectangular or of any
convenient shape.)
2. Swell - It is the enlargement of the mould cavity because of the molten metal pressure,
which results in localised or overall enlargement of the casting.
Figure 2.
Causes Remedies
• Defective or improper ramming • The sand should be rammed properly
of the mould. and evenly.
Thank you for reading these defects (Prepared for CFW Lab only)