Table of Contents

1 Title..........................................................................................................................................1
2 Objectives.................................................................................................................................1
3 Introduction..............................................................................................................................1
4 Definition..................................................................................................................................1
5 Types of casting defects...........................................................................................................1
5.1 Shrinkage defects..............................................................................................................1
5.1.1 Open shrinkage defect...............................................................................................1
5.1.2 Close shrinkage defect...............................................................................................2
5.1.3 Prevention..................................................................................................................2
5.2 Gas Porosity......................................................................................................................2
5.2.1 Prevention..................................................................................................................2
5.3 Pouring Metal Defects......................................................................................................3
5.3.1 Misruns......................................................................................................................3
5.3.2 Cold Shuts..................................................................................................................3
5.3.3 Inclusion....................................................................................................................3
5.4 Metallurgical Defects........................................................................................................4
5.4.1 Hot tears.....................................................................................................................4
5.4.2 Hot spots....................................................................................................................4
5.4.3 Prevention..................................................................................................................5
6 Specific Defects........................................................................................................................5
6.1 Die casting defect..............................................................................................................5
6.2 Continuous casting defect.................................................................................................5
7 Conclusion................................................................................................................................5
1 Title
To learn about casting defects.

2 Objectives
 To study different casting defects in casting process.
 To study how to overcome these defects.

3 Introduction
When we perform casting processes like sand casting, shell mould casting and full mould casting
there are some defects occurring. These types of defects we study in casting defects and know
about how to overcome these defects.

4 Definition
Casting defect is an undesired irregularity in a metal casting process. Some defects are repairable
and some defects are bearable.

5 Types of casting defects

There are four types of casting defects
 Shrinkage defects
 Gas Porosity
 Pouring metal defects
 Metallurgical defects

5.1 Shrinkage defects

This defect happened when additional metal is not present to compensate for metal shrinkage as
thick metal solidifies. It occurs at drag or cope portion of casting process.
Types
 Open shrinkage defect
 Close shrinkage defect

5.1.1 Open shrinkage defect

This type of defect is located outside the casting process.

Fig 01: Open Shrinkage Defect

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5.1.2 Close shrinkage defect
This type of defect is located inside the casting process

Fig 02: Closed Shrinkage Defect

5.1.3 Prevention
It can be reduced by
 Use of riser
 Making the pattern usually of large size than original size product.

5.2 Gas Porosity

 It occurs when gas bubbles are formed in the casting process after it has cooled.
 This type of defects occurs because liquid material holds large amount of dissolved gas,
but the solid material cannot, so the gas bubbles formed.
 Nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen experience gasses in case of gas porosity.

Fig 03: Gas porosity

5.2.1 Prevention
It can be reduced by
 Proper foundry performance, including melt preparation and mould design, because they
are often surrounded by a skin of sound metal and blow holes and it is difficult to detect.
 It can easily detect by X-rays, ultrasonic rays, harmonic rays and magnetic rays.

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5.3 Pouring Metal Defects
Pouring metal defects include misruns, cold shuts and inclusions.
5.3.1 Misruns
It occurs when mould cavity is not properly filled by liquid metal, leaving an unfilled portion.

Fig 04: Misruns

5.3.2 Cold Shuts

It occurs when mould cavity is not completely fused by two fronts of liquid.

Fig 05: Cold Shuts

5.3.3 Inclusion
It is a metal contamination of dross if liquid and slag if solid. These are impurities in the pour
metal like oxides, carbides, sulphides.

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 Fig 06: Inclusion
5.4 Metallurgical Defects
It includes two types of defects
 Hot tears
 Hot spots
5.4.1 Hot tears
It is a failure of casting process that happened when casting cools. This occurs because when
metal is hot than it is weak and the residual stress in the material cause the casting failure.

Fig 07: Hot Tear

5.4.2 Hot spots

They are sections of casting which are cooled down slowly than surrounding material due to
higher volume in the surrounding.

Fig 08: Hot Spots

5.4.3 Prevention
 Hot spots can be reduced by when mould is proper design.
 Hot spots can be reduced by doing proper cooling practises or by changing the chemical
composition of the metal.

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6 Specific Defects
There are some specific defects which are given below.
 Die casting defect
 Continuous casting defect
6.1 Die casting defect
 In die casting defect, the most common defects are misrun and cold shuts. These can be
caused by cold dies, low metal temperature, dirty metal.
 Other possible defects are gas porosity, shrinkage porosity, hot tears and flow marks.

Fig 09: Die Casting Defect

6.2 Continuous casting defect
 Continuous casting defect, includes molten steel qualities such as chemical composition
being out of specification and cleanliness of the material
 In continuous casting defect, a longitudinal facial type of defect occurs.
 It is caused by primary and secondary cooling.

7 Conclusion
Knowledge of casting defects and causes is essential to managing casting quality. You should
set clear defect tolerances and quality expectations with your suppliers before production to help
them understand your quality standards.

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