Castings

John Campbell, QBE, FEng

Professor of Casting Technology

School of Metallurgy and Materials, and
Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Materials for Advanced Applications,
University of Birmingham

OXFORD AUCKLAND BOSTON JOHANNESBURG MELBOURNE NEW DELHI

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First published 1991
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Campbell, John
Castings.
I. Title
669.028

ISBN 0 7506 1696 2

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Campbell, John
Castings/John Campbell,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 7506 1696 2
1. Founding. 2. Metal castings. I. Title.
TS230.C284 1991
671.2-dc20 91-18848
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Acknowledgements
Dr Peter Beeley of Leeds University has made a
significant contribution to this work in the form of
kind and valuable advice during its whole course.
Professor John Knott and Dr Paul Bowen of
Birmingham University have given me valuable
assistance on parts of the section on properties.
On a longer time scale, I am grateful to my former
supervisor and good friend, Dr Voya Kondic, of
Birmingham and Warwick Universities, whose
enthusiasm for castings has been an inspiration. Eric
Brandes was my first encounter with an impressive
mixture of unassuming technical competence, pas-
sionate conviction, and forthright exposition of
materials processing. Alf Vickers, as Managing
Director of the Cos worth Group, had the foresight
and steadfastness to support the development of the
Cos worth process through good and bad years. This
was a turning point for me, and possibly for the
casting industry. Time will tell.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to James A. Doel, Chairman
of Triplex-Lloyd pic, who volunteered the sponsor-
ship which supported me during the writing of the
work. I trust it will be a fitting tribute to such
generous philanthropy which in time will prove to be
commercial vision.
The development of Triplex-Lloyd pic has been
bound up with the advance of casting technology.
Triplex Foundry was established in the 1930s to
manufacture domestic fire grates in grey iron. Today
it is part of the Automotive and Engineering
Division which is at the forefront of commercial
castings. The Deritend International Division pro-
duces sophisticated aluminium and magnesium
investment castings for the aerospace market.
It has been my privilege to have worked with
foundries from both Divisions. This happy and
invaluable experience has been a trial by fire for the
concepts contained here, and has contributed in no
small way to the completeness and practicality of
this volume.
Preface to the paperback edition
The publication of a paperback has given the
opportunity for the revision of a number of minor
errors in the first text. In particular the units, whose
curious form crept in at a proof stage, are now
returned to standard SI form. Figure 2.12 is
considerably revised, presenting a new diagram
which is more appropriate for iron and steel
castings. Table 4.2 has also been corrected.
Concern was expressed at the first volume in that
it contained almost no reference to continuous
casting, nor to mathematical modelling, nor yet to
casting alloys, particularly Al-Si and cast iron since
both are widely used and both are eutectic systems.
However, there are a number of texts on continuous
casting, and no shortage of development effort and
expertise expended in this mainstream area of
casting. The continuous casters are therefore well
able to look after themselves. Regarding mathema-
tical modelling, vast efforts are under way through-
out the world. There will be no shortage of texts
here. There is also no shortage of existing works on
the metallurgy of cast alloys.
No text dealt with the problems of making a
shaped casting. This was my aim.
A work of this kind cannot satisfactorily be kept
up to date. Casting developments have proceeded
Author's note
With each reprinting it has been possible to make
minor improvements to the text which readers have
kindly drawn to my attention. On this occasion
three main changes are noted:
1. It has become clear that a number of readers
have found difficulty with the use of the nomo-
grams in Figure 2.12. To clarify the operation of
these figures construction lines have been added
as examples.
apace since the writing of the first edition. In the
past twelve months the work at Birmingham has
established a sound theoretical and experimental
basis for critical maximum velocities through ingates,
above which surface turbulence has been shown to
damage castings. This finding has advanced under-
standing considerably, and has underpinned the
methodology of the first edition. It is now clear for
the first time that the strength of most castings
(particularly light alloy castings) is limited by the
presence of two macro defects: (i) oxide films and
(ii) residual stress as a result of the casting having
been quenched into water after heat treatment.
However, a detailed account of these developments
will have to await a second edition. The rapidity of
casting developments makes it a privilege to live in
such exciting times.
In the meantime, it is hoped that this paperback
edition will reach an even wider audience, assisting
the industry out of its everyday problems, and
inspiring students to achieve even higher standards
of castings in the future.
JC
Worcester
November 1992
2. In Chapter 3, page 106, the opportunity has
been taken to correct the formula and the units
for permeability.
3. In Chapter 4, page 163, equation 4.23, the plus
(+) and minus (—) signs have been exchanged.
JC
Worcester
(January 1995)
Introduction
Castings can be difficult to get right. Creating things
never is easy. But sense the excitement of this new
arrival:
The first moments of creation of the new casting
are an explosion of interacting events; the release of
quantities of thermal and chemical energy trigger a
sequence of cataclysms.
The liquid metal attacks and is attacked by its
environment, exchanging alloys, impurities, and
gas. The surging and tumbling flow of the melt
through the running system can introduce clouds of
bubbles and Sargasso seas of oxide film. The mould
shocks with the vicious blast of heat, buckling and
distending, fizzing with the volcanic release of
vapours which flood through the liquid metal by
diffusion, or reach pressures to burst the liquid
surface as bubbles.
During freezing, liquid surges through the den-
drite forest to feed the volume contraction on
solidification, washing off branches, cutting flow
paths, and polluting regions with excess solute,
forming segregates. In those regions cut off from the
flow, continuing contraction causes the pressure in
the residual liquid to fall, possibly becoming
negative (as a tensile stress in the liquid) and sucking
in the solid surface of the casting. This will continue
until the casting is solid, or unless the increasing
stress is suddenly dispelled by an explosive expan-
sion of a gas or vapour (shrinkage) cavity. The
surface sinks are halted, but the internal defects now
start.
The subsequent cooling to room temperature is
no less dramatic. The solidified casting strives to
contract whilst being resisted by the mould. The
mould suffers, and may crush and crack. The casting
also suffers, being stretched as on a rack. Silent,
creeping strain and stress change and distort the
casting, and may intensify to the point of catas-
trophic failure, tearing it apart, or causing insidious
thin cracks. Most treacherous of all, the strain may
not quite crack the casting, leaving it apparently
perfect, but loaded to the brink of failure by internal
residual stress.
This book is an attempt to examine these events,
treating them as rapidly changing dynamic inter-
actions. It is this rapidity, this dynamism, which
characterizes the first seconds and minutes of the
casting's life. An understanding of them is crucial to
success.
This is the story of the casting from melt to
finished product. It is an attempt to provide a
framework of knowledge to guide understanding; to
avoid the all too frequent disasters; to cultivate the
targeting of success; to encourage a professional
approach to the design and manufacture of castings.
The reader who learns to guide the production
methods through this minefield will find the rare
reward of a truly creative profession. The student
who has designed the casting method, and who is
present when the mould is opened for the first time
will experience the excitement and anxiety, and find
himself asking the question asked by all foundrymen
on such occasions: 'Is it all there?' The casting
design rules in this text are intended to provide, so
far as present knowledge will allow, enough
predictive capability to know that the casting will be
not only all there, but all right!
The clean lines of the finished engineering
casting, sound, accurate, and strong, are a pleasure
to behold. The knowledge that the casting contains
neither defects nor residual stress is an additional
powerful reassurance. It represents a miraculous
transformation from the original two dimensional
drawing to a three dimensional shape, from a mobile
liquid to a permanently shaped, strong solid. It is an
achievement worthy of pride.
The reader will need some background
knowledge. The book is intended for final year
students in metallurgy or engineering, for those
researching in castings, and for casting engineers
and all associated with foundries who have to make
a living creating castings.
Good luck!
JC
Worcester
September 1990