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MENG 3209/339
Lab Report 2: Permanent Casting Processes
SID: 900140712
casting and semicentrifugal casting and to understand the basic differences between these two
processes. It is also important to compare these two processes in terms of advantages and
disadvantages. Furthermore the study of the design of the mold and its effect on the reduction of
other material help to obtain a final product in the desired shape by pouring molten metal into a
mold and wait until its solidification. The main steps are 1. Melt the metal 2. Pour it into mold 3.
Let it freeze. In this process the mold, which plays a crucial role must be oversized in order to
account for solidification shrinkage. It could be made of sand, ceramic, plaster and metal. The
main advantages of the casting process is that one can create complex part geometries, both
external and internal surfaces, can produce parts in different sizes and suited to mass production.
Some of its disadvantages are the poor dimensional accuracy and surface finish in some
processes, the safety to foundry men and on the environment and the limitations on the
mechanical properties. Parts produced by casting involve compressor frames, wheels, bells etc.
1. Expendable Mold processes: in which the workers, named foundry men scarifies the
mold in order to obtain the desired casting. Mold materials are sand, plaster etc.
The advantages of this process is that it is capable of producing complex shape
geometries. Its disadvantages are that the production rate are too low since the time is
castings. The advantages and disadvantages of the process are opposite to those of the
expendable mold process. Namely, the most important advantage of using permanent
mold processes is the high production rates one can obtain since the mold could be used
many times to produce different castings. In this process the mold material is usually
metal.
In this experiment, the purpose is to study two permanent mold processes:
also important to discuss the solidification of mold ingots since this is a topic that is
eliminating them
- Compare between different casting processes in terms of advantages and
disadvantages.
- Understand and discuss the solidification of mold ingots and specify the
permanent mold casting processes, in which the mold that is made from sand, metal or
ceramic refractory material rotates at high speeds. This particular setting is done such that
when the molten metal is poured inside the mold, it hits the molds walls due to the action
of the centrifugal force. This causes its rapid cooling and solidification which is the main
advantage of this type of casting process. Furthermore, the fast rotation rate makes the
casting of fine grain size, which strengthen the casting and with this method of casting,
impurities and slags have tendency to accumulate on the inner surface of the casting,
section.
Figure (1)
Schematic of Centrifugal Casting Process [After Kalpakjian et al]
Roller
s
Spou
t
Mold
It is now important to calculate the GF (G factor) of the mold. The GF is defined as the ratio of
the centrifugal force to that of the weight of the mold. Its calculation is important since the value
of GF determines whether the liquid metal will rain inside the cavity instead of remaining against
the internal walls of the horizontal mold.
The equations used are :
Another important casting process of the category of centrifugal casting processes is the spin
casting, also named vertical centrifugal casting or semi-centrifugal casting.
This specialized casting process is based on the same physical concept of centrifugal casting but
is intended to produce parts that are non-cylindrical and in many cases asymmetrical. The
castings are made through pouring molten metal into a rotating, disk-shaped mold. The action of
the centrifugal forces help to distribute the molten liquid metal throughout the mold which makes
Mainly used in producing parts for functional and decorative components like the jewelry, the
The main type of metals that are used in this process are the ZAMAK: zinc alloys, lead-tin and
aluminum alloys and white metal, gold and silver, with thermosets like polyester, polyurethane
and epoxies.
The main advantage of this casting process when compared to other processes is that it offers
good surface finish and dimensional accuracy (no extra machining required). It is a high quality
The main disadvantages are the limitations in terms of material and size.
1 Mold making: In this type of casting process, molds are usually made out of vulcanized
rubber. The vulcanization process helps in shaping the molds. In this step, typical models are
inserted between the halves of the molds, then the mold is pressed under temperature so that
the rubber out of which the mold is made is vulcanized. The design of the mold should also
take into consideration the gating and venting system. This vulcanization process results in a
3 Casting: The next step is to pour the molten metal inside the spinning mold. The quality of the
casting depends on many factors: the speed of mold RPM, the clamping pressure, the casting
cycle time, the pouring temperature , the mold temperature, the rate of pouring, the direction
of the spin and the degree of metal purity and cleanliness.
Fig. 10 Spin-Caster
To observe the effect of the rotation speed on the quality of the casting, observe figs 11 and 12
Fig.11 600RPM casting product Fig.12 300 RPM casting product
It appears from the figures that the RPM of the spinning mold is a significant factor in this
process. In fact at low RPM (300RPM), there is not enough force to overcome friction and to
completely fill the mold which results in an incomplete casting part. At high RPM (600), there is
enough force to overcome friction and fill the entire mold which results in a better quality of the
cast.
The following table shows some major defects observed in spin casting and the main reasons
behind that.
Defect Reason
Incomplete percolation of molten Low spinning speed (RPM)
metal
Air cavities within the cast Discontinuous pouring
Laminated casting Vibrations and improper
mounting
Flashing at the parting line Overheating the material
metal ingot is largely affected by the conditions of its solidification which are affected by the
design of the mold, the heat transfer and the amount of impurities and slags in the cast metal
itself. Generally, the ingot contains a region of chill grains at its surface which is caused by the
rapid solidification of the liquid when in contact with the cold mold. Inside this region, there is
another region of columnar grains that grow into the liquid metal from the nuclei on the chill
zone. At the end, the central zone could be described as equiaxed grains when the liquid
temperature has fallen sufficiently so that nucleation starts at random within it. The relative size
and importance of each of these zones highly depends on the composition of the metal and on the
temperature of casting.
When solidifying, the solid ingot experiences a volume contraction that occurs on solidification
leading to a cavity, a phenomenon called pipe effect. The form of that pipe greatly depends on
the design of the mold itself, and less important to the teeming conditions. Practically speaking,
this pipe effect is undesirable since it would be associated with segregation of impurities and
A practical way to eliminate this pipe effect in the ingot is to extend the mold itself with a
refractory surface called hot top in which the molten metal would cool slower than in the main
body of the ingot. So this hot top would provide a reservoir of molten metal to feed the ingot as
In this experiment, it would be practical to use paraffin wax in order to study solidification of
molten metal without the hazard that is normally associated with that and to be able to section
The importance now is to study the effect of positive and negative mold taper and a hot top on
When the three designs are compared it appears that the best design to limit the pipe effect is the
one on the right (hot top mold), since the hot top mold provides a reservoir for the bottom part
which reduces the amount of cavity. Then at a less quality comes the one on the left (positive
taper) since it provides the bottom part to act as riser for the top part and will supply more
molten metal, then the less quality is the middle part which was based on a negative mold design
since the top part will act as a riser for the bottom so it wouldnt have a reservoir to counteract
To sum up, in this experiment, the purpose was to study two permanent
casting. Each of the two casting processes has its advantages and
disadvantages but the main concept is the same: the centrifugal force
the fast rate of production. While the main advantage of the spin casting is
It was also important to study the effect of the mold design on the
solidification of the metal cast. The presence of a hot tap helps in reducing
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