Professional Documents
Culture Documents
designs. Patterns that are more complex are made in two parts, called split patterns. The upper
part of a split pattern is called a cope, while the bottom section is called a drag. The parting line
is where the cope and drag meet. Both solid and split patterns can have cores inserted to create
internal cavities or detailed external features. When making a pattern, it is necessary to taper
the edges so the pattern can be drawn out of the sand without breaking the mold. The pattern
is housed in a box called the flask, and then packed with sand.
The design of pattern considers:
a- Removing the holes: Removing all the holes formed by cores from the product is
required. Also, as the pattern design is required to produce the cored characteristics in
reference to the design of the core support in the mold. The volume equivalent to the
entire core is to be added to the geometry of the pattern to achieve the desired pattern
shape.
b- Shrinkage solidification : Since the castings have a tendency to shrink away from the
wall of the molds, this implies that internal dimensions of the castings decreases while
external dimensions increases to balance the solidification contraction of the casting.
c- Machining allowance: This added amount of extra material depends on the final
tolerances of the process dimensions, quality of sub-surface, size of the component and
the kind of machining required.
d- Draft: A draft angle is provided to all faces of the product, which are parallel to the draw
direction for facilitating the process of withdrawal. Its value lies between 0.5 Degrees to
3 degrees depending upon the size of the external faces
e- Fillets: The sharp edges are rounded for the process of molding and filling.
Type of Pattern:
i.
Removable pattern is used for producing multiple identical moulds. The sand is packed
around the pattern and the pattern is withdrawn from the sand leaving the desired
cavity. The cavity produced is filled with molten metal to create the casting. Made from
wood, metal, plastic etc.
ii.
Disposable pattern the patterns are made from polystyrene or other materials and
sand is rammed around them. The pattern is left in the mould instead of being removed
from the sand. The pattern material vaporizes when the molten metal is poured into the
mould and cavity (or melted before molten is poured) thus the cavity is filled with the
molten metal. Made from wax, polystyrene, etc.
a- Greensand Casting Mould
The Process as shown in Fig. 5: The sand mixture is compacted through mechanical force or by
hand or machine around a pattern to create a mould. The mechanical force needed for the
sand casting process can be induced by slinging, jolting, squeezing or by impact/impulse. A
binder helps harden the sand into a semi-permanent shape. Once the sand mold is harden, the
pattern is removed. This leaves a hollow space in the sand in the shape of the desired part.
Sand cores can then be inserted in the mold to create holes and improve the casting's overall
shape. Simple patterns are usually open on top, allowing molten metal to be poured into them.
Two-piece molds are clamped together. Molten metal is poured into a pouring cup where it will
then travel down a sprue and into the gating system. Vent holes are created to allow hot gases
to escape during the pour. Ideally, the pouring temperature of the molten metal is a few
Azhar Abdullah PUO
hundred degrees higher than the melting point, assuring good fluidity. The temperature
difference also prevents premature cooling and resulting voids and porosity. After the metal
cools, the sand mold is removed and the metal part is ready for additional operations, such as
cutoff and grinding.
Greensand is the most widely used moulding medium, consisting of the aggregate, bonded with
a mixture of mainly clay and water and always has been and remains one of the most important
and common binder systems. It is low cost, environmentally friendly and recyclable and the
most important, it is extremely fast. Modern greensand plants can produce 600 molds per hour
compared to chemically bonded moulds, which can be produced at perhaps 60100 per hour.
The word of greensand should be written as one word, not as green sand.
The greensand moulding is by far the most popular and most economical, its main advantage is
that moulds may be produced, poured and knocked out in a continuous cycle of short duration.
The greensand process produces the majority of small to medium weight castings. Although the
moulds are relatively weak in this condition, steel castings weighing up to 5 tonnes have been
made in greensand. About 70% of ferrous castings are made from green moulding sand.
Greensand mould is well known method used in metal casting operations and is performed by
85% of foundries. Greensand moulds comprise a base sand, clay binder and water, which have
been mixed and mulled to produce a satisfactory moulding media. However, other additions
may be used, such as coal dust iron foundries or an equivalent replacement is added to impart
a good surface finish to the castings. Greensand is usually 100% reclaimed and rebounded for
further use. The base sand may be either naturally bonded sand in which the clay already
presents in the sand acts as the binder or added with active clay such as bentonite. The
majority of mechanised foundries today operate fully synthetic greensand for making their
mould so that active clay can be added in controlled quantities. Some foundries add a
proportion of natural sand to their synthetic mixes producing what is called as semi-synthetic
sand. There are various types of clay used, depending upon the moulding properties and
refractoriness required. Generally the steel foundry uses the American Wyoming bentonite as
its clay bond, whereas a sodium exchanged Fullers Earth, a cheaper material, is employed by
most iron and non-ferrous founders.
Advantages:
Less expensive Method.
Sand can be reused many times after reconditioning with clay and moisture.
Preferred for simple, small and medium size castings.
Suitable for mass production.
Disadvantages:
Moulds prepared by this process lack in permeability, strength and stability.
They give rise to many defects like porosity, blow holes etc. because of low permeability
and lot of steam formation due to their moisture content.
Moulds cannot be stored for appreciable length of time.
Surface finish and dimensional accuracy of castings are not satisfactory.
Mould erosion is common in green sand mould casting.
Difficult to cast thin and intricate shapes
Disadvantages:
Sand pH value affected to the consumption of the binder such as olivine and chromite
sand which are alkaline (unsuitable for use with acidity resins)
Patterns require additional maintenance.
A2.
Shell Mould Casting
A process for producing simple or complex near net shape castings, maintaining tight
tolerances and a high degree of dimensional stability. Shell moulding is a method for making
high quality castings. These qualities of precision can be obtained in a wider range of alloys and
with greater flexibility in design than die-casting and at a lower cost than investment casting.
The process was developed and patented by Croning in Germany during World War II and is
sometimes referred to as the Croning shell process or C process.
Shell molding, also known as shell-mould casting, is an expendable mould casting process that
uses a resin covered sand to form the mold. It is used for small to medium parts that require
high precision. Shell mould casting is a metal casting process similar to sand casting, in that
molten metal is poured into an expendable mold. However, in shell mold casting, the mold is a
thin-walled shell created from applying a sand-resin mixture around a pattern. The pattern, a
metal piece in the shape of the desired part, is reused to form multiple shell molds. A reusable
pattern allows for higher production rates, while the disposable molds enable complex
geometries to be cast. Shell mold casting requires the use of a metal pattern, oven, sand-resin
mixture, dump box, and molten metal.
Shell mold casting allows the use of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, most commonly using
cast iron, carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloys, and copper alloys. Typical
parts are small-to-medium in size and require high accuracy, such as gear housings, cylinder
heads, connecting rods, and lever arms.
Fig. 6 shows the process of making shell mould:
1. Fine silica sand that is covered in a thin (36%) thermosetting phenolic resin and liquid
catalyst is dumped, blown, or shot onto a hot pattern. The pattern is usually made from
cast iron and is heated to 230 to 315 C. The sand is allowed to sit on the pattern for a
few minutes to allow the sand to partially cure.
2. The pattern and sand are then inverted so the excess sand drops free of the pattern,
leaving just the "shell". Depending on the time and temperature of the pattern the
thickness of the shell is 10 to 20 mm.
3. The pattern and shell together are placed in an oven to finish curing the sand. The shell
now has a tensile strength of 2.4 to 3.1 MPa.
4. The hardened shell is then stripped from the pattern.
5. Two or more shells are then combined, via clamping or gluing using a thermoset
adhesive, to form a mold. This finished mold can then be used immediately or stored
almost indefinitely.
Azhar Abdullah PUO
6. For casting the shell mould is placed inside a flask and surrounded with sand, or gravel
to reinforce the shell.
The machine that is used for this process is called a shell molding machine. It heats the pattern,
applies the sand mixture, and bakes the shell.
foam to simplify the investment casting process by removing the need to melt the wax out of
the mold.
The Process as shown in Figure 7; First, a pattern is made from polystyrene foam. For small
volume runs the pattern can be hand cut or machined from a solid block of foam; if the
geometry is simple enough it can even be cut using a hot-wire foam cutter. If the volume is
large, then the pattern can be mass-produced by a process similar to injection molding. Preexpanded beads of polystyrene are injected into a preheated aluminum mold at low pressure.
Steam is then applied to the polystyrene which causes it to expand more to fill the die. The final
pattern is approximately 97.5% air and 2.5% polystyrene. Pre-made pouring basins, runners,
and risers can be hot glued to the pattern to finish it.
A4.
Investment Casting
An industrial process based on and also called lost-wax casting, one of the oldest known metalforming techniques. From 5,000 years ago, when beeswax formed the pattern, to todays hightechnology waxes, refractory materials and specialist alloys, the castings allow the production
of components with accuracy, repeatability, versatility and integrity in a variety of metals and
high-performance alloys.
Generally used for small castings, but has been used to produce complete aircraft door frames,
steel castings of up to 300 kg and aluminium castings of up to 30 kg. It is generally more
expensive per unit than die casting or sand casting, but has lower equipment costs. It can
produce complicated shapes that would be difficult or impossible with die casting, yet like that
process, it requires little surface finishing and only minor machining
Wax is used in investment casting because it softens with heat, which allow sit to be easily
shaped. Originally patterns were made from bees wax, but now a days the term wax applies
to any substance with wax like properties that can also be described as an industrial moulding
compound.
The advantages are:
Excellent surface finish
High dimensional accuracy
Machining of the casting can be reduced or completely eliminated
High production moulding process
No flash or parting lines
The main disadvantages are:
Cost for die of pattern is expensive
Length of time required to make a shell mould is high
The size of casting produced is limited
The Process: The investment casting process begins with fabrication of a sacrificial pattern of
the same basic geometrical shape as the intended finished cast part. Patterns are normally
made of investment casting wax that is injected into a metal wax injection die (Fig. 9A).
Once a wax pattern is produced, it is assembled with other wax components on a central wax
stick, called a sprue, to form a casting cluster or assembly (Fig. 9B).
The entire wax assembly is then dipped in a ceramic slurry and covered with a sand stucco (Fig.
9C), and allowed to dry.
The dipping and stuccoing process is repeated until a shell of ~6-8 mm (1/4-3/8 in) is applied.
Once the ceramic has dried, the entire assembly is placed in a steam autoclave to remove most
of the wax. The remaining amount of wax soaked into the ceramic shell is burned out in a
furnace (Fig. 9D).
At this point, all of the residual pattern and gating material is removed, and the ceramic mold
remains. The mold is then preheated to a specific temperature and filled with molten metal,
creating the metal casting (Fig. 9E).
Azhar Abdullah PUO
Once the casting has cooled sufficiently, the gating system is cut from the casting (Fig. 9F).
After minor final post processing (sandblasting, machining), the castings - identical to the
original wax patterns - are complete and ready for shipment (Fig. 9G).
The two main disadvantages are that pattern costs can be high for low volume applications and
the patterns are easily damaged or distorted due to their low strength. If a die is used to create
the patterns there is a large initial cost.
A metalworking casting process similar to sand casting except the molding material is plaster of
paris (gypsum or calsium sulfate) with addition of talc and silica flour to improve strength. A
precision metal pattern (usually brass) generates the two part mold which is made of a gypsum
slurry material. The mold is removed from the pattern and baked at a temperature range 120
2600C to remove the moisture and then preheat to about 1200C. The molten metal is poured
into the mold and allowed to cool. The mold is broken to remove the part (see Fig. 4).
Like sand casting, plaster mold casting is an expendable mould process; however it can only
limited to low melting temperature metals (non-ferrous materials), i.e. aluminum, copper, zinc
and magnesium alloys due to degradation of the plaster mold at elevated temperatures.
Applications: Parts that are typically made by plaster casting are lock components, pump
impeller, gears, valves, fittings, tooling, ornaments and moulds for plastic and rubber
processing, i.e. tyre moulds
Azhar Abdullah PUO
Advantages: Plaster mold casting is used when an excellent surface finish and good dimensional
accuracy is required. Because the plaster has a low thermal conductivity and heat capacity the
metal cools more slowly than in sand mold, which allows the metal to fill thin cross-sections;
the minimum possible cross-section is 0.6 mm. It also produces minimal scrap material. The size
is ranging from 25 g to 50 kg in weight. However, castings up to 100 kg have been made.
The major disadvantage of the process is that it can only be used with lower melting
temperature non-ferrous materials, such as aluminium, copper, magnesium, and zinc. The most
commonly used materials are aluminium and copper. The maximum working temperature of
plaster is 1,200 C, so higher melting temperature materials would melt the plaster mold. Also,
the sulfur in the gypsum reacts with iron, making it unsuitable for casting ferrous materials.
Another disadvantage is that its long cooling times restrict production volume. Plaster mold has
low permeability and can create gas evolution problems.
The main disadvantages are: it is only cost effective for small- to medium-sized production runs
and the ceramic is not reusable, low porosity permeability
Ferrous and high-temperature non-ferrous are most commonly cast with these processes;
other materials cast include: aluminum, copper, magnesium, titanium, and zinc alloys.
High productivity.
Good dimensional accuracy.
Good surface finish
Thin wall parts may be cast.
Very economical process at high volume production.
Small size parts may be produced.
Not applicable for high melting point metals and alloys (eg. steels). Suitable for relatively
low melting point metals (1600F/871C) like lead, zinc, aluminum, magnesium and some
copper alloys.
Large parts cannot be cast, most suitable for small castings up to about 75 lb.
Equipment and die costs are high.
Some gases may be entrapped in form of porosity.
Steering Housing
Oil Pan
B2.
Centrifugal Casting
A casting technique typically used to cast thin-walled cylinders. It is noted for the high quality of
the results attainable, particularly for precise control of their metallurgy and crystal structure.
In centrifugal casting, a permanent mold is rotated continuously about its axis at high speeds
(300 to 3000 rpm) as the molten metal is poured. The molten metal is centrifugally thrown
towards the inside mold wall, where it solidifies after cooling. The casting is usually a finegrained casting with a very fine-grained outer diameter, owing to chilling against the mould
surface. Impurities and inclusions are thrown to the surface of the inside diameter, which can
be machined away.
Casting machines may be either horizontal or vertical-axis. Horizontal axis machines are
preferred for long, thin cylinders, vertical machines for rings.
Applications:
Typical parts made by this process are pipes, brake drums, pulley wheels, train wheels, gun
barrels, boilers, pressure vessels, flywheels, cylinder liners and other parts that are rotational
symmetry. It is notably used to cast cylinder liners and sleeve valves for piston engines, parts
which could not be reliably manufactured otherwise.
B3.
Squeeze Casting
A method combines casting and forging technologies. In contrast to other casting techniques
(sand casting, die casting), in which a molten metal is poured (injected) into the mold cavity
after the two parts of the mold are assembled, squeeze casting mold is closed after a portion of
molten metal has been poured into the preheated bottom die. The upper die lowers towards
the bottom die causing the melt to fill the mold cavity. The squeezing pressure is applied until
full solidification of the casting. A scheme of the process is shown in the picture:
Highly abundant, low costs, bonds well with organic and inorganic binders, suitable for
recycling.
Lower thermal expansion than silica sand but less stable under thermal shock than zircon
or chromite
Low thermal expansion, cooling rate 4 times that of quartz, chemically unreactive,
completely unwetted by molten metal, compatible with organic and inorganic binders.
Excellent thermal stability, highly refractory, chemically unreactive and not easily wetted
by molten metal.
Silica Sand
The most common foundry sand mineral is silica sand due to its world-wide availability,
appropriate particle size and distribution, and high melting point. The vast majority of moulds
and cores in foundry casting industry are made primarily from silica sand. The ideal
specifications for foundry sand are the shape of material should have rounded or sub-angular
grains, and a grain size distribution that is spread over four to five sieves and silica content of
9596% (although 98-99% is often preferred). The silica content of sand for foundry sand is 9596% minimum where the higher the more refractory the sand. The usual limits of silica for
moulding sands is 80-90%. Generally, the purest silica sand, which is more than 99.8% of SiO 2, is
considered the most refractory and thermally stable. The presence of excessive amounts of iron
oxide, alkali oxides, and lime can cause objectionable lowering of the fusion point in sands.
According to Fosecos Ferrous Foundryman Handbook, requirement of chemical properties of silica sand
for foundry use as stated in Table below.
providing necessary pore spaces for superheated gases to escape without breaking the mould
during the casting process. A sub-angular shape also allows for a relatively smooth finished
surface to the casted parts.
Moisture Content
Determine the percentage of water in the sand mould. The test for moisture content is the
most important of the tests on foundry sand because moisture affects all the mechanical
properties of greensand mould and most defects, which are due to failure to control moisture.
The bonding quality of clay depends on the maximum thickness of water film it can maintain.
Water activates the clay so that it develops the necessary plasticity and strength. The amount
of water used should be properly controlled. Greensand moulding needs 3-10% by weight of
clay, used as a binding agent; water is added in a quantity equal to 3-4% by weight to activate
the clay transformation to gel, which gives an appreciable cohesion to the mould.
Green Compression Strength
According to Salmon and Simons (1966), the green compression strength of foundry sand is the
maximum compressive strength a mixture is capable of developing when moist. Parkes (1971)
mentioned, for routine purposes, green strength is always measured in compression. Dry
strength may be measured in compression or shear. The green compression strength of
foundry sand is the maximum compression strength where AFS standard cylindrical specimen
(size 50 mm50 mm in height) mixture of sand, water and clay is capable of sustaining when
prepared and rammed by applying three ramming blows of 6666 g each using a metric standard
rammer. The specimen then is tested using a universal sand strength-testing machine. The
standard practical value of green compression strength is 20-80 kN/m2.
Permeability Number
AFS (1963) described the permeability as the physical property of the moulded mass of a sand
mixture, which allows gas to pass through it. It is determined by measuring the rate of flow of
air (2000 cm3) under standard pressure (10 g/cm2) through the standard cylindrical sand test
piece (50 mm 50 mm in height). Specimen is produced by compacting the mixture of sand,
water and clay on applying three ramming blows of 6666 grammes, which is enough to produce
the standard size of test piece. The test piece then tested with permeability meter. For cast iron
is 10-80, bronze is 35, aluminium is 20-40 and steel is 150-300.
Cupola Furnace
One of the oldest styles of melting furnaces, the cupola furnace, has a tall, cylindrical shape.
The insides of these furnaces are lined with clay, blocks or bricks which protect the furnace's
interior from heat, abrasion and oxidation. To melt the metal in the furnace, workers add layers
of metal such as ferrous alloys, limestone and coke. Alternating layers of metal and ferrous
alloys, coke, and limestone are fed into the furnace from the top. A schematic diagram of a
cupola is shown in below. The limestone (as a flux) reacts with the metal, making the impurities
float up to the surface of the melting metal.