METE 215

MATERIALS PROCESSING LABORATORY

Experiment 7
Prof. Dr. Ali KALKANLI

SOLIDIFICATION OF MATERIALS

AIM: Learning doing conventional sand casting, observation of solidification

time and amount of sinking.

CASTING
Casting is the process of pouring molten metal in to a mould cavity of required shape & size
and allowing for cooling.

It involves a series of operations

i) Mould making
ii) Melting
iii) Pouring
In this experiment we will use the conventional method for casting.

MOULD MAKING
Preparing Mold Sand

Silica sand (SiO2) is used more frequently for making castings than any other moulding
materials. It is relatively cheap, and has sufficiently refractoriness even for steel foundry use.
A suitable bonding agent (clay or molasses) is mixed with the sand; mixture is moistened
with water to develop strength and plasticity and to make the aggregate suitable for
molding. A definite mulling action is always required for thorough mixing, in which sand
grains, bonding agent, and water are rubbed intimately together. Different types of sand
mullers are used to serve this purpose.

Practice for Making Sand Molds Using Different Patterns

Silica sand (SiO2) is used more commonly for making castings than any other molding
materials. It is relatively cheap, and has sufficiently refractoriness even for steel foundry use.
A suitable bonding agent (clay or molasses) is mixed with the sand; mixture is moistened

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with water to develop strength and plasticity and to make the aggregate suitable for
molding. The resulting sand mixture is easily prepared and molded around various shapes to
give satisfactory casting of almost any metal. The fundamentals of mold making are simple,
but expert hand molding requires much skill and practice. Production line work is done today
by machine molding, in which nearly all operations are automatic. The skilled molder is
replaced by a relatively untrained machine operator.

Equipment:

Flask or Molding Box, Rammer, Riddle, Wooden or Steel Board, Different Patterns, Draw
spikes.

Chemicals / Materials:

Molding Sand.

Procedure

• First of all place the wooden (bottom board) on the table.

• Place the drag-half of the flask on the bottom board and position drag-half of the
pattern in it.
• Sprinkle some amount of dry sand in the flask and over the pattern to produce
smooth surface finish. It also acts as a parting agent.
• Now, fill the drag-half of the flask with molding sand keeping the pattern in position.
• Ram the molding sand in the flask with the help of a rammer.
• Continue adding and ramming the sand until it is densely packed in the flask.
• Now, place a second flat board upside down on the mold and flask, clamp it and over
turn the whole.
• Now, position the cope-half of the flask over drag and also the cope-half of the
pattern
• Place two rods vertically on either sides of the pattern, at a suitable distance, to
produce pouring basin and risering system.
• Repeat the same procedures again…
• Remove the rods from the mould carefully.
• Position the cores in the cavity of the mold and close the mold again by placing cope
again atop the drag.
• The mold is ready for pouring.

Melting Aluminum and its Alloys

Manufacture of castings is essentially a matter of heat transfer in one or another form.

Heat is first added to the cold, solid metal (scrap or ingot) for melting and for
superheating the molten metal until it is fluid enough to pour into a mold. Various types

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 of furnaces are used for this purpose are used induction furnace. Heat is then extracted
from the metal by mold to re-form it into a solid, cold body of desirable size and shape.

Observations that we accept from students

• After preparing mold we pour the liquid metal to our mold and we will starting to
measure solidification time of our metals.
• Observe a cone time for every shape and compare them

Al-Si alloys differ from our "standard" phase diagram in that aluminium has zero solid
solubility in silicon at any temperature. This means that there is no beta phase and so this
phase is "replaced" by pure silicon (you can think of it as a beta phase which consists only of
silicon). So, for Al-Si alloys, the eutectic composition is a structure of alpha+Si rather than
alpha+beta

Solidification time of a Casting

Casting Geometry, material and process determine the solidification time of a casting. The
rudimentary equations that are required to estimate the casting solidification will be
reviewed in this section. The occurrence of solidification shrinkage defect, which is indicated
by the relationship between temperature, gradient and cooling rate, would also be looked
at.

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In order to derive the equation that would represent the solidification time of the simply
shaped casting, the assumptions made are:

• The mold is made semi-infinite (the effect which the finite thickness of the mold has
must be neglected), and the heat flow is unidirectional.
• Over a range of considered temperature the properties of metal and mold material
are uniform (throughout the bulk), and remain constant.
• The mold surface and the metal are in complete contact (there are no air gaps).
• From the commencement to the end of solidification the metal-mold interface
temperature remains constant.

An equation between the heat that the casting gives up Qcast, and the heat that the mould
transferees Qmould, can give the solidification time. Here the casting volume (representing
the heat content) is represented by V and the cooling surface area (through which heat is
extracted), is represented by the A. The casting modulus is given by the ratio V/A. If two
distinct shapes like a cube and a plate are considered to be having the same volumes then
the shape whose cooling surface area is larger will be the first to be solidified.

If two or more than two castings that are simply shaped but have distinct volume and
surface area of cooling are to be compared then the chvorinov's equation can be considered.
If the solidification order of distinct regions of a casting is to be determined then the same
chvorinov's principle can be used. This can be accomplished by dividing the casting into
simpler shapes and then calculating the volume and surface area of cooling for every region.
The hot spot is considered to be that region which has the maximum modulus and is the last
to solidify.

The designing of the feeder is done in such a way that the modulus of the feeder is greater
than the hot spot region's modulus. This criterion is the simplest for ensuring that the liquid
state of the feeder is maintained till the feed metal is being supplied for the compensation of
the casting's volumetric shrinkage.

Rate of Solidification: Using the following relation this can be determined in case of skin
freezing alloys. If the casting that solidifies near a wall of mold with area A after an elapse of
time , has a thickness d then we would have:

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Earlier in 1935 researcher like Briggs verified experimentally the aforementioned relation by
taking sets of castings and pouring them out after a time gap of different lengths. From 1940
to 1960, a great many researchers like Wlodawer, Pelliny, Ruddle, and Chvorinov verified the
relation that exists between the solidification time and the casting modulus. Placing
thermocouples in a mold and by obtaining cooling curves from each was the most widely
used method.

• There is a limited application in practice of the equations between solidification time

and rate. The casting's complex geometry, significance in the variation between mold
and metal properties right from when it is poured to the solidus temperature, and
also the effect that the variation in resistance has at the interface between the metal
and the mould because of the air gap and the layer of oxide are mainly responsible
for this.
• Attempts for the derivation of the equations that are improved by various
researchers have met with limited success.
• The lack of correct thermal and physical data of varied castings and mold materials
that are determined by the experiments are a further hindrance. At the
solidification's end there is a requirement of the temperature's history given by
T=T(x, y, z, t) for the regions while using Chvorinov's equation to determine the most
probable regions of the shrinkage porosity.
• On the basis of this the peaks of temperature, rates of cooling, and gradients can be
determined and thus the prediction of the shrinkage cavity's occurrence and its
location can be made.

Table 1 . COMPARATIVE TIME FOR SOLIDIFICATION OF VARIOUS STEEL SHAPES

Form and Size of Riser Volume, Weight, Area, Amount Time to A/V
cu inch lb sq inch Solidified Completely
in 1 Minute, Solidify,
lb/cu inch minutes
Sphere: 6-inch diameter 113 32 100 42.7 7.2 0.884
Cylinder: 4-1/4 inches 113 32 120 51.2 4.7 1.062
by 8 inches
Square: 3-5/8 inches by 113 32 135 57.5 3.6 1.194
3-5/8 inches by 8-5/8 inches
Plate: 2-1/4 inches by 113 32 160 68.4 2.7 1.416
6-1/4 inches by 8 inches
Plate: 1-25/64 inches by 113 32 220 93.8 1.5 1.947
10-5/32 inches by 8 inches

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GENERAL RULES OF RISERING

The most important function of a riser is that of a reservoir of heat and molten metal. To be
effective, it must be the last portion of the casting to solidify. There are four primary
requirements which a satisfactory riser should meet:

1. The volume of the riser should be large enough to compensate for the metal contraction
within the area of the casting it is designed to feed.

2. Enough fluid metal must be in the riser to penetrate to the last cavity within its feeding
area.

3. The contact area of the riser with the casting must fully cover the area to be fed, or be
designed so that all the needed feed metal in the riser will pass into the casting. See figure
143.

4. The riser should be effective in establishing a pronounced temperature gradient within

the casting, so that the casting will solidify directionally toward the riser.

Accordingly, the shape, size, and location of the riser must be effectively controlled.

Riser Shape

The rate of solidification of a metal varies directly with the ratio of surface area to volume. In
other words, for a given weight of metal, the shape which has the smallest surface area will
take the longest time to solidify. The ratio of surface area to volume is obtained by dividing
the surface area by the volume. In table 20 are listed some of the solidification times for
various shapes of steel castings having the same weight.