Report Casting

ELLY ONYANGO
B13/03890/21
MECHANICAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
YEAR 4
MMEN 330N
FOUNDRY REPORT
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting
them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after
the metal has solidified as it cools.
Metal casting is defined as the process in which molten metal is poured into a mould that
contains a hollow cavity of a desired geometrical shape and allowed to cool down to form a
solidified part.
Factors to consider in metal casting
a) Material suitability
Although almost all the metals can be used, the most commons ones are iron, steel, aluminium,
magnesium and copper-based alloys such as bronze. However, other metals, such as brass, steel,
and zinc, are also used to produce castings in foundries. In this process, parts of desired shapes
and sizes can be formed.
Zinc, aluminium, magnesium and brass are widely used in die casting whereas aluminium alloy,
brass alloy, cast iron and cast steel are very popular sand-casting materials.
b) Typical application
Nearly every engineering product we use from washing machines to pillar drills, cars to bicycles
are manufactured using metal parts which are most likely to be made using one of the metal
casting processes.
Advantages of casting process:
a) Molten metal flows into small ant section in the molten cavity. Hence any
complex shape can be easily produced. The metal casting process is most suitable for the
production of parts with complex shape, especially with complex cavity, such as
complex box, valve and impeller .
b) Practically any material can be casted, such as steel, a variety of aluminum alloy,
copper alloy, iron alloy, platinum alloy castings etc. For those brittle alloy materials with
low plasticity (such as ordinary cast iron), casting is the only feasible forming process
c) A Wide range of size, thickness and shape can be casted. Casting wall thickness
can be up to 0.3-1000mm, the length varies from a few millimeters to ten meters, and the
weight can be from a few grams to more than 300 tons
d) Due to small cooling rate from all directions, the properties of casting are same in all
directions.
Limitations of casting process:
i) Dimensional accuracies and surface finish are poor. ii) Defects are unavoidable:
shrinkage, porosity, cracks, hot tearing, cold shuts, laps, oxides, miss-run, insufficient
volume and inclusions
iii) Sand casting is labor intensive.
iv) Most of the processes requires close process control and monitoring
v) They require secondary processes for example to remove metallic projections at
the parting lines and those due to cutting off of the runners
vii) Die casting can be very expensive for smaller to medium quantities due to high
die cost
viii) Part size and material choices depend on the casting process chosen. For instance,
only nonferrous metal can be used for permanent mold castings
Metal casting stages
a) Heating in Furnaces
Several specialised furnaces are used to melt the metal. Furnaces are refractory lined vessels that
contain the material to be melted and provide the energy to melt it. Modern furnace types
include electric arc furnaces (EAF), induction furnaces, cupolas, reverberatory, and crucible
furnaces.
Furnace design is a complex process, and the design can be optimized based on multiple factors.
i) Quantity of the melt required: Furnaces in foundries can be any size, ranging
from small ones used to melt precious metals to furnaces weighing several tons, designed
to melt hundreds of pounds of scrap at one time.
ii) The type of metals that are to be melted. Furnaces must also be designed based
on the fuel being used to produce the desired temperature.
b) Degassing
In the case of aluminium alloys, a degassing step is usually necessary to reduce the amount of
hydrogen dissolved in the liquid metal. If the hydrogen concentration in the melt is too high, the
resulting casting will be porous as the hydrogen comes out of solution as the aluminium cools
and solidifies.
c)Mold making process
Castings are made by pouring molten metal into refractory molds and allowing the metal to
solidify. The solidified metal will retain the shape of the mold cavity and can be removed from
the mold when the metal is solid.
Methods of Green-sand Moulding
i)Open-sand Method
It is simplest form of green sand moulding, particularly suitable for solid patterns. For
convenience in working and pouring, the entire mould is made in the foundry floor or in a bed of
sand above floor level. Moulding box is not necessary and the upper surface of the mould is
open to air. After proper levelling the pattern is pressed in the sand bed for making mould.
Pouring basin is made at one end of the mould, and the overflow channel cut at the exact height
from the bottom face of the mould for giving necessary thickness.
ii)Bedded-in method
In this method, the pattern is hammered down or pressed to bed it into the sand of the foundry
floor or in a drag filled partially with sand to form the mould cavity. The sand should be
rammed close to the pattern sand; a cope is placed over the pattern. The cope is rammed up,
runners and risers are cut and the cope box is lifted. Now the pattern is withdrawn, the surfaces
of drag and cope replaced in its correct position for completing the mould.
iii)Turn-over method
One pattern-halves (the cope and the drug) placed with its flat side on a moulding board, a drag
is rammed and rolled over. The other pattern half and a cope box are placed in position. After
ramming the cope is lifted off and the two pattern halves shaken and withdrawn. Now the cope
is replaced on the drag for assembling the mould.
Characteristics of good molds:
i) Strong enough to hold the weight of the metal.

ii) Resistant to the cutting action of the rapidly moving metal during pouring.
iii) Generate a minimum amount of gas when filled with molten metal.
iv) Constructed so that any gases formed can pass through the body of the mold itself
rather than penetrate the metal.
v) Refractory enough to withstand the high temperature of the metal, so it will strip
away cleanly from the casting after cooling.
vi) Collapsible enough to permit the casting to contract after solidification.
Molding Tools and Accessories
1. Wedge; 2. Gaggers; 3. Blow can; 4. Bellows; 5. Floor rammer; 6.

Adjustable clamp; 7. Clamp; 8. Rapping iron; 9. Strike; 10. Rammer; 11. Bench rammers;
12. Molder's shovel; 13. Six-foot rule; 14. Cutting pliers; 15. Riddle.
d)Pouring
In a foundry, molten metal is poured into molds. Pouring can be accomplished with gravity, or it
may be assisted with a vacuum or pressurized gas. Many modern foundries use robots or
automatic pouring machines for pouring molten metal. Traditionally, molds were poured by
hand using ladles.
e) Shakeout
The solidified metal component is then removed from its mold. Where the mold is sand based,
this can be done by shaking or tumbling. This frees the casting from the sand, which is still
attached to the metal runners and gates - which are the channels through which the molten metal
traveled to reach the component itself.
f) De-gating
De-gating is the removal of the heads, runners, gates, and risers from the casting. Runners, gates,
and risers may be removed using cutting torches, band saws or ceramic cutoff blades.
g) Surface cleaning
After degating and heat treating, sand or other molding media may adhere to the casting. To
remove this the surface is cleaned using a blasting process. This means a granular media will be
propelled against the surface of the casting to mechanically knock away the adhering sand
FOUNDRY DEFECTS
i) Gas defects or porosity: Blowholes, open holes, pinholes.

ii) Shrinkage cavities
iii) Cracks (surface and internal cracks)/Metallurgical defects (Hot tears, hot spot)
iv) Molding material defects (cuts and washes, metal penetration, fusion, swell drops,
rat tail, and inclusions)
v)Pouring metal defects (mis-runs, slag inclusion and cold shuts)
vi)Mold shift (when cope and drag or molding boxes have not been properly aligned)
CONCLUSION
Casting is an important aspect in mechanical engineering world and needs to be accorded a keen
insight so as to generate quality items.
References
1. Beeley Peter (2001), Foundry Technology (2nd ed.), Oxford, UK:

ButterworthHeinemann, ISBN 978-0-7506-4567-6
2. Campbell J. S., Principles of Manufacturing Materials And Processes, Tata
McGraw Hill, 1995.

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ELLY ONYANGO

Factors to consider in metal casting

Advantages of casting process:

c)Mold making process

Characteristics of good molds:

i) Strong enough to hold the weight of the metal.

1. Wedge; 2. Gaggers; 3. Blow can; 4. Bellows; 5. Floor rammer; 6.

i) Gas defects or porosity: Blowholes, open holes, pinholes.

1. Beeley Peter (2001), Foundry Technology (2nd ed.), Oxford, UK:

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