CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Casting is a manufacturing process where solid melted, heated to
proper temperature and is then poured into cavity or mold, which
contains it in the proper shape during solidification. Thus in single
step, simple or complex shape can be made from any metal that can
be melted. The resulting product can have virtually any
configuration the designer desires.
Casting is a process which carries risk of failure occurrence during
all the process of accomplishment of the finished product. Hence
necessary action should be taken while manufacturing of cast
product so that defect free parts are obtained. Mostly casting
defects are concerned with process parameters. Hence one has to
control the process parameter to achieve zero defect parts. For
controlling process parameter one must have knowledge about
effect of process parameter on casting and their influence on
defect.
To obtain this all knowledge about casting defect, their causes, and
defect remedies one has to be analyze casting defects. Casting
defect analysis is the process of finding root causes of occurrence
of defects in the rejection of casting and taking necessary step to
reduce the defects and to improve the casting yield. In this review
paper an attempt has been made to provide all casting related
defect with their causes and remedies.
During the process of casting, there is always a chance where
defect will occur. Minor defect can be adjusted easily but high
rejected rates could lead to significant change at high cost.
Therefore it is essential for die caster to have knowledge on the
type of defect and be able to identify the exact root cause, and their
remedies.

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The casting that takes place at HIMSONS is essentially sand

casting. It is used to manufacture hydraulic lift housings of tractors
of world renowned companies like MAHINDRA AND
MAHINDRA and NEW HOLLAND. The foundry is 100x50
metric squares in area, which pertains to task specific casting. It
was established in 1943 by 2 young entrepreneurs Mr. Nalin Shah
& Mr. Bhupendra Shah with the aim of combining the art and
science of the casting process.

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CASTING DEFECT CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS

FOLLOWS1. Filling related defect
2. Shape related defect
3. Thermal defect
4. Defect by appearance
These defects are explained as follows.
1. Filling related defects:
a) Blowhole:Blowhole is a kind of cavities defect, which is also divided into
pinhole and subsurface blowhole. Pinhole is very tiny hole.
Subsurface blowhole only can be seen after machining. Gases
entrapped by solidifying metal on the surface of the casting, which
results in a rounded or oval blowhole as a cavity. Frequently
associated with slags or oxides. The defects are nearly always
located in the cope part of the mold in poorly vented pockets and
undercuts.

1.(Blow Hole In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

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b) Sand burning :Burning-on defect is also called as sand burning, which

includes chemical burn-on, and metal penetration.

c) Sand inclusion :Sand inclusion and slag inclusion are also called as scab or blacking
scab. They are inclusion defects. Looks like there are slag inside of
metal castings.

2. (Sand Inclusion In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

d) Gas porosity :The gas can be from trapped air, hydrogen dissolved in aluminum
alloys, moisture from water based die lubricants or steam from
cracked cooling lines.

3. (Gas Porosity In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

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e) Misrun:Defect is a kind of incomplete casting defect, which causes the

casting uncompleted. The edge of defect is round and smooth.

4. (Misrun In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

2. Shape defects:a) Mismatch :Defect Mismatch in mold defect is because of the shifting
molding flashes. It will cause the dislocation at parting line.

5. (Mismatch)
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b) Distortion or warp :Warped CastingDistortion due to warp age is known as warp

defect.

c) Flash defect :Flash can be described as any unwanted, excess metal which comes
out of the die attached to the cavity or runner.

6. (Flash defect In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

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3. Thermal defect:a) Cracks or tears:Cracks can appear in die castings from a number of causes. Some
cracks are very obvious and can easily be seen with the naked eye.
Other cracks are very difficult to see without magnification.

.
7. (Crack In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

b) Shrinkage:Shrinkage defects occur when feed metal is not available to

compensate for shrinkage as the metal solidifies. Shrinkage defects
can be split into two different types: open shrinkage defects and
closed shrinkage defects.

8. (Shrinkage)
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4. Defects by Appearance:a) Metallic projection:Joint flash or fins. Flat projection of irregular thickness, often with
lacy edges, perpendicular to one of the faces of the casting. It
occurs along the joint or parting line of the mold, at a core print, or
wherever two elements of the mold intersect.

b) Cavities :Blowholes, pinholes, Smooth-walled cavities, essentially spherical,

often not contacting the external casting surface (Blowholes). The
defect can appear in all regions of the casting.

9. (Crack In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

c) Discontinuities :Hot cracking. A crack often scarcely visible because the casting in
general has not separated into fragments. The fracture surfaces may
be discolored because of oxidation. The design of the casting is
such that the crack would not be expected to result from constraints
during cooling.

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10. (Blowhole In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

11. (Mold Breakdown In Housing Of New Holland Tractor)

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CHAPTER 2
DEFECTS ANALYSIS AND
SELECTION OF DEFECT
Defects

Rejected Quantity

Job Rejection %

Blowhole

123

1.38

Bad Mold

42

0.47

Shrinkage

31

0.34

Bad Core

19

0.21

Cores Broken

16

0.17

Mismatch

13

0.14

Hard

0.07

Swell

0.01

Others

0.003

To understand the concept, data for occurrence of defects are

collected from HIMSONS for one month. From this data,
occurrence chart has been prepared which further helps to identify
occurrence major defects in castings. We found that maximum
defect occur due to blow hole.

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BLOWHOLES IN SAND CASTING

There are different types of defects produced in sand casting. A high
proportion of casting defects are caused due to evolution of gases. One of the
major casting defects caused due to gases is holes (gas holes). Gas holes are
pinholes and blowholes. This designation belongs to size of the hole and not
its origin. Blowhole is very prevalent cause of casting scrap. Figure shows
schematic of blowholes, showing blowholes near core, surface blowholes
and casting strewn with blowholes.

12. (Blowholes)

The blowholes are smooth walled cavities, essentially spherical, often not
contacting the external casting surface. The largest cavities are often
isolated. In specific cases, the casting surface can be strewn with blowholes.
The interior walls of blowholes can be shiny, more or less oxidized or in
case of cast iron can be covered with a thin layer of graphite . Figure shows
some slag blowholes having smooth surface and slag accumulated on smooth
surface.
The blowholes are usually revealed by machining or by heavy shot blasting.
The defect may take the form of well defined bubble shaped cavities beneath
the surface of the casting. These forms of holes may arise from entrapment
of more than one sort of gas during the course of mold filling and
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solidification. It is important to know the origin of and reactions producing

these gases, so that correct diagnosis and cure can be affected.
These defects occur during and after mold filling as gases produced/given
off by mold or core additives/binders and slag are entrapped and at the latter
stages of solidification as dissolved gases are rejected from the liquid metal.
The blowhole will be formed when the gas pressure exceeds the metal
pressure in a localized area. The primary gases associated with blowholes are
CO, CO2, H, and N. If the casting has developed a thick enough skin gases
will be trapped in the subsurface. Magnesium treatment causes an increase
in surface tension of the metal allowing gases to be trapped more readily.

13. (Blow Hole)

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TYPES OF BLOWHOLES:When the hot metal is poured inside the sand mold, sand and sand contents
gets heated and large amount of gases are produced inside the casting. The
main gas producing processes in the mold are
Rejection of dissolved gases from the metal

Entrapment of core and mold gases evolved under pressure

Reaction of carbon in the metal with oxygen or oxides

The above classification of origin of gases leads to following cases of

formation of blowholes :

Blowholes due to high gas content of the metal:They are also called as endogenous gas holes or blowholes. These
holes are caused due to excessive gas content in the metal bath and
rejection of dissolved gases during solidification. The gases involved
in this defect are hydrogen and nitrogen. Both are soluble in liquid
cast iron and relatively insoluble in solid iron. As casting solidifies
the insoluble gas is rejected and produces holes between growing
crystals. Blowholes from carbon monoxide may increase on size by
diffusion of hydrogen or less often nitrogen.

Blowholes from mold or core gases

They are also called as exogenous gas holes. These holes are caused
due to excessive moisture in molds or cores, core binders which
liberate large amount of gas, excessive amount of additives
containing hydrocarbons and blacking and washes which tend to
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liberate too much gas. If the gas which is evolved from molds and
cores cannot freely escape, it may get trapped in the liquid metal.
The bubbles formed remain in the casting during solidification. The
gases producing these holes consist mainly of steam, coal gas and
hydrocarbon gases from decomposition of organic core binders.

Carbon oxygen reaction holes:The gas holes in this group may appear in variety of forms, but the
gas responsible is carbon monoxide, produced by the reaction of
oxygen containing substances with the carbon present in the cast
iron. Manganese sulfide in the oxide rich liquid slag allows the
reaction to take place at lower temperatures and facilitates the
entrapment of gas in solidifying metal.

Mechanical entrapment of gas:They are also called as exogenous gas holes or blowholes. These
holes are caused due to insufficient evacuation of air and gas from
mold cavity and insufficient mold or core permeability The blowhole
formation is also affected by the parameters like pouring
temperature, rate of pouring, slag inclusion, moisture and clay
content of mold and sand, type of binder and type of additives used
etc.

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CHAPTER 3
CAUSES AND REMEDIES OF
BLOWHOLE
CAUSES OF BLOWHOLES:1.Design / pattern equipment
Lack of venting and vent locations
Metal entering into vents because of poor core fit and lack of sealing
Poor design of gating system / slow pouring /metal turbulence, lack of slag
removal.
Short risers, not enough metal pressure
Excess temperature loss in gating systems due to long and narrow runners
and gates
Insufficient space between mold cavity and flask walls & bars.
Pouring metal against large flat & hard surfaces.

2.Process
Molding Sand high moisture, low permeability, clay balls, poor mixing,
and
incorrect volatile content in green sand.
Too high a moisture for the clay level and compactability
Excessive binders, un-dried coatings, uncured resins in nobake sand and cores.
Blocked or metal-capped vents.
Excessive gases dissolved in metal
Excessive oxygen (rusty scrap), hydrogen due to excess aluminium and
titanium in metal, or excess nitrogen.
Cold metal temperatures and wet refractories.
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 Interrupted pouring, slow pouring, too high or too low temperatures

Short poured molds
Refractories not dried properly
Too high CE or carbon

3. Most probable causes

Excessive gas producing materials in metallic charge.
Excess binder in core and/or molding sand.
Slow pouring and colder metal lack of fluidity.
Vents missing or not working in cores and molds.
Low carbon or carbon equivalent.
Lack of metal filtration and/ or slag removal.

Due to type of sand being used:Resin-bonded sand

Inadequate core venting
Excessive release of gas from core
Excessive moisture absorption by the cores
Low gas permeability of the core sand

Clay-bonded sand
Moisture content of sand too high, or water released too quickly
Gas permeability of the sand too low
Sand temperature too high
Bentonite content too high
Too much gas released from lustrous carbon producer

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14. (Blow Hole)

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REMEDIES FOR BLOWHOLES: Resin-bonded sand

Improve core venting, provide venting channels, ensure core prints
are free of dressing
Reduce amounts of gas. Use slow-reacting binder. Reduce quantity
of binder. Use a coarser sand if necessary.
Apply dressing to cores, thus slowing down the rate of heating and
reducing gas pressure.
Dry out cores and store dry, thus reducing absorption of water and
reducing gas pressure.

Clay-bonded sand
Reduce moisture content of sand. Improve conditioning of the
sand. Reduce inert dust content.
Improve gas permeability. Endeavour to use coarser sand. Reduce
bentonite and carbon carrier content.
Reduce sand temperature. Install a sand cooler if necessary.
Increase sand quantity.

Reduce bentonite

content.

Use bentonite

with

a high

montmorillonite content, high specific binding capacity and good

thermal stability.
Use slow-reacting lustrous carbon producers or carbon carriers
with higher capacity for producing lustrous carbon. In the last
instance, the content of carbon carriers in the moulding sand can be
reduced.

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 Moulding plant
Reduce compaction of the moulds. Ensure more uniform mould
compaction through better sand distribution.

Gating and pouring practice

Increase pouring temperature. Reduce the pouring rate as
appropriate.
Increase metallostatic pressure by changing the gating system.
If possible raise the cope flask.
By provide intial spark during pouring we can remove entrap gases

15. (Sparking At Himsons Cast Pvt. Ltd)

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16. (Sparking At Himsons Cast Pvt. Ltd)

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MAIN FACTORS AFFECTING FOR

BLOWHOLES GENERATION
PERMEABILITY:During the solidification of a casting, large amounts of gases are to be
expelled from the mould. The gases are those

which have been

absorbed by the metal in the furnace, air absorbed from the

atmosphere and steam and other gases that are generated by the
moulding and core sands. If these gases are not allowed to escape
from the mould ,they would be trapped inside the casting and causes
defects. The moulding sand should be sufficiently porous so that the
gases are allowed to escape from the mould. This gas evolution
capability of the moulding sand is termed as permeability.

Besides these specific properties, the moulding sand should also have
collapsibility so that during the contraction of the solidified casting, it
does not provide any resistance which may result in cracks in the
casting .They should be reusable and should have good thermal
conductivity so that heat from the casting is quickly transferred.

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17. (SIEVE ANALYSER)

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 MOISTURE CONTENT:As explained earlier, moisture is an important element of the

moulding sand as it affects Many properties. To test the moisture of a
moulding of a moulding sand , a carefully weighed test sample of 50 g
is dried at a temperature of 105 Celsius to 110 Celsius for 2 hours by
which time all the moisture in the sand would have been evaporated.
The sample is then weighed. The weight difference in grams when
multiplied by two would give the percentage of moisture contained in
the moulding sand.

Alternatively, a moisture teller can also be used for measuring the

moisture content. In this the sand is dried by suspending the sample
on a fine metallic screen and allowing hot air to flow through the
sample. This method of drying completes the removal of moisture in
a matter of minutes compared to 2 hours as in earlier method.
Another moisture teller utilizes calcium carbide to measure the
moisture content. A measured amount of calcium carbide in a
container along with a separate cap consisting of measured quantity
of moulding sand is kept in the moisture teller. Care has to be taken
before closing the apparatus that carbide and sand do not come into
contact. The apparatus is then shaken vigorously such that the
following reaction takes place:
CaC2 + 2 H2O = C2H2 + Ca(OH)2

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The acetylene coming out will be collected in the space above the
sand rising the pressure .A pressure gauge connected to the
apparatus would give directly the amount of acetylene generated,
Which is proportional to the moisture present. It is possible to
calibrate the pressure gauge to directly read the amount of moisture

18. (% of moisture tester)

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19. (dial indicator of % of moisture tester)

GREEN COMPRESSIBILITY STRENGTH:Green compression strength or simply green strength generally refers to the
stress required to rupture the sand specimen under compressive loading. The
sand specimen is taken out of the specimen tube and is immediately put on
the strength-testing machine and the forces required to cause the
compression failure is determined.The green strength of sands is generally in
the rangs of 30 to 160 kPa.

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20. (GCS tester)

21. (compressing machine)

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The above graph shows the relation between green permeability

number and moisture. The strength of moulding sand is also affected
by grain size and shape as shown in graph. The GCS increases with
mitigation of grain size.

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 Escape of Gases:The internal cavities should be so designed as to permit the escape of gases
evolving from the cores when the molten metal is poured in Internal cores,
which are small and long are likely to pose difficulties in clearing also. Sand
burned into core holes, and fins or viens, are very difficult to remove when
they are hard to reach. Providing access holes or clean-out holes, make
available additional core prints for support, to vent core gases as well as to
permit the core sand to be removed.

For example, an unsatisfactory design is illustrated in fig. The gases

accumulating in the upper part of the core from blow holes. This problem
may be reduced by making small vent holes for the escape of gases, as
shown in fig. The redesigned vaulted shape of the upper portion of the
casting as in fig. Would be the best way to ensure the escape of gases
through the top core print.

22. (ESCAPE PROVISION FOR CORE GASES)

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Another way of solving the problem is to change the position of the casting
with reference to the parting plane .For example, in fig., the casting being in
the core gases are not vented at all. But by bringing the casting into the drag
as in fig.the core gases are properly vented.

23. (CORE GAS VENTING)

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30 | P a g e

Day

GCS

Moisture

1180

4.5

1165

4.4

1185

4.5

1190

4.5

1150

4.3

1000

4.4

980

4.5

985

4.3

1150

4.5

10

1095

4.4

12

1165

4.5

13

1160

4.3

14

1165

4.5

16

1160

4.4

17

1150

4.5

18

1150

4.4

21

990

4.5

22

935

4.6

23

995

4.5

24

1035

4.4

25

975

4.4

26

1050

4.5

27

1000

4.3

30

900

4.4

Moisture Vs Days
4.65
4.6
4.55
4.5
4.45

Moisture

4.4
4.35
4.3
4.25
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

Green Compressibility Strength Vs Days

1400
1200
1000
800
GCS
600
400
200
0
0

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10

15

20

25

30

35

SYNOPSIS:
We have seen lot of defects that arises in and defect on which we have
worked is Blowholes. We had looked for the root causes of it and the
remedies that we can take. We found that it depends on many factors few of
them is permeability, moisture content and on Green compressibility
strength(GCS) .
Firstly, the occurrence of blowhole depends on permeability greatly. As it is
property that allows the gas to escape from mold.It should neither be more
nor less. If it is more the casting becomes brittle and if it gas will be trapped
so chances of blow hole increases.
Furthermore, it also depends on the moisture content .If the moisture content
is more the amount of the vapour formed due to evaporation will be more so
the occurrence of blowholes is probable.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Review of Casting Defect Analysis to Initiate the Improvement
ProcessA.P.More, Dr.R.N.Baxi, Dr.S.B.Jaju Mechanical Engineering
Department, G.H.Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur. 440016
(India)
Process optimization as a tool in the analysis of steel casting defects
By Dr.Hathibelagal Roshan, Chief Metallurgist Maynard Steel
Casting Company Milwaukee, WI 53217
A.Ghosh, A.K.Malik, Manufacturing Science, East-West Press Pvt.
Ltd, First Edition, Reprint 2001
www.moderncasting.com
Nikitin, V. G. Gasporenbildung in Gustcken unter Einwirkung des
hydraulischen Schlages in der Gieform Litejnoe proizvodstvo 1976,
P. 28 29 (Russian)
Manufacturing Technology Volume 1 By PN RAO

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