Casting Design

Following are the design considerations

• Corners, Angles and section thickness
• Sharp edge should be avoided because it acts as stress riser and
produce cracking and tearing
• Consider fillet radius to facilitate material flow
• Section changes should be smoothly blended
• Longer circles cooling rate is slow thus called hotspot
• Hotspot could also develop by shrinkage cavity and porosity
• Shrinkage cavity can be eliminated by introducing core
• Metal padding can eliminate cavity
• Padding acts as external chilling
• Flat area
• Large flat area may wary during solidification
• Poor surface finish because of uneven material flow
• Should be avoided
 Casting Design
• Shrinkage
• There should be allowance for shrinkage
• Also known as pattern marker’s shrinkage allowance
• Parting line
• Separating line of cope and drag
• Parting line should be along a flat plane
• Draft
• Small draft is provided for easy removal
• Dimensional tolerance
• Tolerance for small casting is +- 0.8 mm
• Tolerance for large casting is +- 6 mm
 Casting Design
• Machining allowances
• For finishing operation
• Impose to pattern dimension
• Residual stresses
• Different cooling rates at different sections produce residual stress
• Annealing is needed
 Casting Design Modifications

Figure 12.1 Suggested design

modifications to avoid defects
in castings. Note that sharp
corners are avoided to reduce
stress concentrations.

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-4
 Casting Cross-Sections

Figure 12.2 Examples of designs showing the importance of maintaining uniform cross- sections in
castings to avoid hot spots and shrinkage cavities.

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-5
 Avoiding Shrinkage Cavities

Figure 12.3 Examples of

design modifications to avoid
shrinkage cavities in castings.
Source: Steel Castings
Handbook, 5th ed. Steel
Founders' Society of America,
1980. Used with permission.

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-6
 Chills

Figure 12.4 The use of

metal padding (chills) to
increase the rate of cooling
in thick regions in a casting
to avoid shrinkage cavities.
Source: Steel Castings
Handbook, 5th ed. Steel
Founders' Society of
America, 1980. Used with
permission.

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-7
 Normal Shrinkage Allowance for Some Metals
Cast in Sand Molds

TABLE 12.1
Metal Percent
Gray cast iron White 0.83–1.3
cast iron Malleable 2.1
cast iron Aluminum 0.78–1.0
alloys Magnesium 1.3
alloys Yellow brass 1.3
Phosphor bronze 1.3–1.6
Aluminum bronze 1.0–1.6
High-manganese steel 2.1
2.6

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-8
 Parting Line

Figure 12.5 Redesign of a

casting by making the parting
line straight to avoid defects.
Source: Steel Casting
Handbook, 5th ed. Steel
Founders' Society of America,
1980. Used with permission.

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-9
 Figure 12.6
Examples of casting
design modifications.
Source: Steel Casting
Handbook, 5th ed.
Steel Founders'
Society of America,
1980. Used with
permission.

Casting Design
Modifications

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-10
 Desirable and Undesirable Die-Casting
Practices
Figure 12.7 Examples of
undesirable and desirable design
practices for die-cast parts. Note
that section-thickness uniformity is
maintained throughout the part.
Source: American Die Casting
Institute.

Kalpakjian • Schmid
Manufacturing Engineering and Technology © 2001 Prentice-Hall Page 12-11