Function, types and design of

feeder (riser)

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Riser / Feeder
 It helps to know the complete mold filling
 It compensates the liquid and solidification shrinkage during casting by
feeding extra liquid metal (also feeder)
 Venting of entrapped gases from mold.
 It provides extra metal pressure
on the casting to reproduce
mold details.
 Types  Open riser (Top riser),
Blind riser, Side riser

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Riser / Feeder
Open riser:
 Its upper surface is open to the atmosphere
 Usually placed on the top of the casting or at the parting plane
 Gravity and atmospheric pressure cause the liquid metal in the riser to
flow into the solidifying casting.
 If a certain thickness of
metal solidifies in the
upper part of the riser 
Atmospheric pressure no
longer remains effective
 makes it difficult to
flow metal from the riser.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Riser / Feeder
Blind riser:
 It is completely enclosed in the mold and not exposed to the atmosphere.
 Metals cools slower and stay longer promoting directional solidification.
 The liquid metal is fed to solidifying casting under the force of gravity
alone.
 Blind risers are good
design features and
maintain heat longer than
open risers do.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Solidification shrinkage
 In general, liquids contract on freezing  Rearrangement of atoms in the
liquid structure changes from an open ‘random close-packed’ arrangement
to a regular crystalline array of significantly denser packing in the solid.
 Graphitic cast irons with carbon equivalent above approximately 3.6
expand due to precipitation of the low-density phase (graphite).

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-1: Do not provide feeder unless necessary
 Feeders cost money to put on, and money to take off.
 It reduces casting yield.
 Sometimes the casting suffers delayed cooling, impaired properties, and
even segregation problems due to feeder.
 It is easy to make an error (feeder size, location, etc.)  casting can be
more defective than if no feeder were used at all.
 Probably half of the small and medium-sized castings made today do not
need to be fed.

w - Weight of the casting

W - Weight of the liquid metal poured

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
 Time of solidification of riser (tr) should be higher than that of casting (tc).
 Chorinov’s rule 2 2
V  V 
tr  Bs (r )   tc  Bs (c)  
 A r  A c
t= solidification time, Bs=mold constant and (V/A)=Modulus (M)
 For successful riser design, tr > tc

2 2
V  V  M increases  t increases
Bs (r )    Bs (c)  
 A r  A c

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
Two cases:
   
2 2
1. Bs(r) = Bs(c) Bs ( r ) Mr  Bs ( c ) Mc
 Mr > Mc must be met to insure that the riser solidify after the casting.
 Most common situation encountered in practice (riser and the casting
are molded into the same sand)
 In practice, Mr > 1.1 – 1.2 Mc is usually sufficient to effectively feed the
solidifying casting.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
Modulus of common
shapes

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
Location, shape and size of riser
 Riser should be attached to the section of casting with the largest modulus.
MA = 0.25 / 2 = 0.125 in, MB = 0.5 / 2 = 0.25 in, MC = 1.0 / 2 = 0.5 in
MC > 1.1 MB > 1.1 MA Section B will act as riser for section A
Section C will act as riser for section B
Location: Top riser or side riser?
• Determined by a number of
other practical factors.
• More often the side mounted
riser is chosen for ease of
removal.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
Location, shape and size of riser
Shape: most efficient shape for a riser is a sphere  maximizing V/A.
• Practical molding considerations  cylindrical shapes (h = 2d).
• The moduli of the top and side mounted risers are:
• Top Riser, MR = 2d / 9
• Side Riser, MR = d / 5

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
Location, shape and size of riser
Size:
• A side riser on the step bar requires a riser with a modulus
• MR = d/5 = 1.1MC = 0.55 in.
• d = 2.75 in.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
Bs(r )  Mr   Bs(c)  Mc 
2 2
Two cases:
2. Bs(r) > Bs(c), such that Mr < Mc and still the inequality tr > tc holds
good
 A situation when an insulating riser sleeve is molded around the riser
cavity.
 It allows the use of much smaller riser thereby increasing casting yield.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-2: Feeder/Riser must not solidify completely before the casting
solidifies
 Caine’s method  normally used for checking the adequacy of the riser
size for a steel casting
 Assumption
 A
Cooling rate   
V 
a = 0.1  freezing
constant of metal, b = 0.03
 contraction ratio from
liquid to solid, c = 1 if
mold material around the
casting and riser is the
same.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-3: Feeder must contain sufficient liquid metal to feed the
contraction requirement of both itself and casting.
Vc = volume of casting
Vf = volume of feeder
α = contraction coefficient
ε = feeder efficiency ~ 14%

 For sound casting 

 For Aluminum casting and cylindrical Metal in feeder = metal

feeder (H = 1.5D)  α = 7%  Vf = Vc in casting  50% yield

 For Steel casting and cylindrical feeder

~78% yield
(H = 1.5D)  α = 3%  Vf = 0.27Vc

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-3: Feeder must contain sufficient liquid metal to feed the
contraction requirement of both itself and casting.
 Curve A  minimum feeder volume
needed to satisfy the thermal condition Mr
= 1.2 Mc.
 Curve B minimum feeder volume
needed to satisfy the feed demand criterion
Calculated by
(4% shrinkage and 14% feeder efficiency).
neglecting non-
 Thin steel plates of (L/t) about 6 or 7, are cooling
properly fed by a feeder dictated by interfaces for
freezing time requirements. simplicity
 Thin section steel plates above this critical
ratio (L/t) always freeze first  require a
feeder size dictated by vol. requirements.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Q. Design a cylindrical riser with a height equal to twice its diameter
that will compensate for shrinkage in a 2 cm x 8 cm x 16 cm casting.
Note that (i) the riser should take 25 % larger time to solidify than
casting (ii) the feeder efficiency is 15% and the shrinkage coefficient is
2%.
Vc = volume of casting
Vf = volume of feeder
α = contraction coefficient
ε = feeder efficiency ~ 15%

 A
Cooling rate   
V 

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-4: There must be a path to reach the feed metal to the required
region. (Feed path requirement)
 Possible to achieve if there is a directional
solidification of the casting towards the riser.
 Identify the feed paths that will transport feed metal through castings of
complex geometry  Ex. - hot spots at the T-junctions between plates.
 Locations never be used as feed paths  Corners, edges of plates, ends of
bars and cylinders.

Use padding Use extra feeder

Solutions

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-5: Junction requirement  the junction between the casting and
feeder must not create a hot spot
 Hot spot may cause a shrinkage cavity that extends into the casting.
 Solution 1  Feeders and ingates should not be planted on the casting so
as to create a T (or an L-) junction.
 Add as extensions to a section as an elongation to a wall or plate (side
riser)
Feeder
 Solution 2  If there is no alternative  avoid hot spot by
Casting
 MR > 2MC for T junction
 MR > 1.33 MC for L junction
 Solution 3  Provide spherical shape
at the base to save metal in riser.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-6: Pressure and pressure gradient requirement
 Pressure requirement  Sufficient pressure must be applied to all parts
of the solidifying metal to inhibit the nucleation and growth of volume
defects. Restraining force offered by the
For bubble to grow: surface tension
Pi - internal pressure
 To satisfy pressure requirement Pe - external pressure
T - surface tension
o Increase H:D ratio of feeders to 1.5 to 2
o Place feeders at highest point Nucleation of bubble in
solidifying metal

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-6: Pressure and pressure gradient requirement
 Pressure requirement
 Liquid level (pressure head) in the feeder to be sufficient to drive feeding
to top section in the casting
 Pressure loss situations in castings can result in shrinkage porosity.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-6: Pressure and pressure gradient requirement
 Pressure gradient requirement  There must be sufficient pressure
differential:
 to cause the feed metal to flow, and Generated by
 the flow must be in the correct direction. solidification of
liquid metal (PS)
 Driving force = Positive pressure + negative pressure

Atmospheric (Pat) + hydrostatic (Phyd)

 Net pressure must be higher in the feeder

than the casting

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-6: Pressure and pressure gradient requirement
 Pressure gradient requirement
 Always take advantage of gravity (downhill) feeding to avoid defects.
 Pressure in the casting and feeder continues to fall during freezing until a
pore initiates.
 Blind feeders are often unreliable in practice if the atmospheric vent is not
provided  they suck feed metal from the casting, making it porous.
 Blind feeder with an atmospheric vent (William’s core)  available
atmospheric pressure may help it to feed uphill.

Coffee cup experiment  the air is held in the

upturned cup and cannot be released until air is
admitted via a puncture.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-7: Temperature gradient
 No. of riser required depends on casting geometry and feeding distance
required.
 Mc = 4x4 / 2(4 + 4) = 1
 Riser size  Mr = 1.1 Mc

 For a riser with h = 2d, Mr = 2d / 9

 d = 4.95” and h = 9.9”
 Riser position  ??
Riser effect  Sound End effect  Sound
Shrinkage along the distance from the riser distance from the end
centerline of the bar along the bar of the bar

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-7: Temperature gradient
 For steel bar type castings  RE = 1.5 t and EE = 2 t.
 For a bar with t = 4”, the RE = 6” and the EE = 8”,
 RE+EE  max. distance a riser can be placed from the end of a bar = 14”
 For sound casting  riser diameter (d) + 2RE  4.95 + 12 = 16.95”.
 No. of riser for 100” bar  (100 - 2EE) / (2RE + d) = 4.96
 5 risers distributed uniformly along the length with the end risers 14
inches from the end.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Design consideration (The seven feeding rules)
Rule-7: Temperature gradient
 When dT/dx < (dT/dx)c  shrinkage voids form at the centerline.
(dT/dx)c – minimum critical value

Highest dT/dx

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Q. Shows cylindrical riser attached to a casting. Compare the
solidification times for each casting section and the riser and determine
whether the riser will be effective.

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding

Q. Shows a cylindrical riser attached to a casting. Compare the
solidification times for each casting section and the riser and determine
whether the riser will be effective

ME30605-Casting, forming and welding