Special casting Processes

1) Centrifugal Casting
a) True b) Semi c) Centrifuging
2) Die Casting
a) Hot chamber b) Cold chamber
3) Investment Casting
True centrifugal casting

True centrifugal castings are produced by pouring

molten metal into the cavity of a rapidly rotating
metal mold to whose walls the metal is thrown
centrifugal force and where it solidifies in the form
of a hollow casting.

True centrifugal casting is the production of hollow

casting by the centrifugal force alone and without
the aid of a central core.
Advantages :-
• Castings acquire high density and are distinguished for their
fine grained structure and high mechanical strength.
• Inclusions and impurities such as oxide, slag, and gas etc,
being lighter than the molten metal will segregate toward
the center to the inside surface the casting, where they may
be removed by subsequent machining operations.
• Gates and risers are not needed which results in saving in
material and increasing the yield.
• Formation of hollow interiors without cores.

Disadvantages:-
• Contaminations of inner surface of the casting make it
necessary to increase
• finishing allowance for subsequent machining of inner
surfaces.
• An inaccurate diameter of the surface of a casting.
 Semi-centrifugal casting

1. Semi centrifugal casting process is used to produce solid castings and

hence, requires a core to produce hollow cavities.
2. Semi Centrifugal Casting process is used only for symmetrically shaped
objects and the axis of rotation of the mould is always vertical.
3. Gear blanks, sheaves, wheels and the pulley are the commonly produced
parts by Semi Centrifugal Casting process.
Centrifuging casting
• When a group of small molds are
arranged in a circle (to balance each
other) around the central vertical axis
of the flask and the flask is rotated
about the vertical axis, the process is
called centrifuge casting.
• It is clear that the molds are not
symmetrical about the axis of
rotation, that is , the axis of casting
and the axis of rotation do not
coincide with one another.
• Here again the centrifugal force is
used to obtain higher pressure on the
metal and get more dense castings.
The molten metal will flow to all the
molds under centrifugal force from a
central feeding sprue.
 Investment Casting
• In investment casting, a wax or suitable polymer
pattern is coated by dipping into the refractory material
slurry.
• Once the refractory material coating is hardened then
this dipping process is repeated several times to
increase the coating thickness and its strength.
• Once the final coating is hardened the wax is melted
out and molten metal is poured into the cavity created
by the wax pattern.
• Once the metal solidifies within the mould, metal
casting is removed by breaking the refractory mould.
Investment casting
Advantages of investment casting
1. Excellent surface finish
2. High dimensional accuracy
3. Extremely intricate parts are castable
4. Almost any metal can be cast
5. No parting lines

Disadvantages of investment casting

1. Overall cost is high
2. Especially for short-run productions
3. It can be difficult to cast objects requiring cores
Applications of investment casting
• Aerospace industry (Blades of gas turbines and jet
engines)
• Impellers for turbo chargers
• Tools and dies
Die Casting
• Die casting is a process where molten metal is
injected under very high pressure into premium
steel molds (dies).
• The die is designed to cast engineered shapes and
complex features with great accuracy and
consistent replication.
 Hot chamber die casting
1) Uses alloys with low melting
temperatures (i.e. Zinc, some
Magnesium alloys).
2) Using alloys with high melting
temperatures would result in
damage to the gooseneck, nozzle
and other components.

1) The metal is contained in an open holding

pot, which is placed in the furnace and
melted to the needed temperature.
2) When the plunger is in the “up” position, the
molten metal flows into the shot chamber.
3) As the plunger moves down, it forces the
molten metal through a gooseneck and into
the die at injection pressures ranging from 7
MPa – 35 MPa.
 Cold chamber die casting
1) Cold chamber die casting is a type of die
casting that is used for alloys with high
melting temperatures (i.e. Aluminum
and some Magnesium alloys).
2) Cold chamber works with a horizontal
orientation and does not have a
gooseneck

1. As a contrast from hot chamber die casting

(pumping molten metal into the machine),
molten metal is ladled from the furnace
into the shot chamber through a pouring
hole.
2. The plunger forces metal through the shot
chamber into the die at pressures ranging
from 14 MPa and 138 MPa.
Advantages of Die casting
• Large No.of identical parts can be produced quickly.
• Parts are extremely fine finish and close
dimensional tolerance can be obtained
• Thin sections may cast.

Disadvantages of Die casting

• Tooling cost is high.
• Only economical for mass production
• Size of casting is limited
Applications of Die casting
• Carburetors
• Crankcase and other parts of motor cycles.
Casting defects

Casting defects can be categorized into 5 types

1. Gas Porosity: Blowholes, open holes, pinholes

2. Shrinkage defects: shrinkage cavity
3. Mold material defects: Cut and washes, swell,
drops, metal penetration, rat tail
4. Pouring metal defects: Cold shut, misrun, slag
inclusion
5. Metallurgical defects: Hot tears, hot spot.
 When gases entrapped on the surface of the
casting due to solidifying metal, a rounded or oval
cavity is formed called as blowholes.

Drop defect occurs when there is cracking on the upper surface

of the sand and sand pieces fall into the molten metal.

These casting defects appear as an uneven and rough

surface of the casting. When the size of sand grains is
larges, the molten fuses into the sand and solidifies giving
us metal penetration defect.

The defect caused due to misalignment of upper

and lower part of the casting and misplacement of
the core at parting line.
 It is the enlargement of the mold cavity because of
the molten metal pressure, which results in
localised or overall enlargement of the casting.

They are very small holes of about 2 mm in size which

appears on the surface of the casting. This defect
happens because of the dissolution of the hydrogen
gases in the molten metal.

The formation of cavity in the casting due to volumetric

contraction is called as shrinkage cavity.

When the molten metal enters into the mold 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.
 When the molten metal solidifies before completely
filling the mold cavity and leaves a space in the mold
called as misrun.

This defect is caused when the molten metal containing

slag particles is poured in the mold cavity and it gets
solidifies.

When the metal is hot it is weak and the residual

stress (tensile) in the material cause the casting fails as
the molten metal cools down. The failure of casting in
this case is looks like cracks and called as hot tears or
hot cracking.
Fettling of casting
What is fettling?
Fettling is defined as removing the unwanted parts
are like gates, runners and risers through cleaning
and finishing operations. Such as Grinding, chipping
and shot blasting.