Hill and Griffith Sep 24, 2019 1 min read

20 Green Sand Casting Defects and Their

Suggested Remedies
Originally published January 2017 by Mechanical Engineering

Probable causes and suggested remedies of various casting defects such as blow holes, shrinkage, porosity,
misruns, hot tears, mental penetration, cold shuts, cuts and washes, inclusions, fusion, drops, shot metal, shift,
crushes, rat-tails, swells, hard spot, run out, fins and fash, spongings and warpage are given in the below
table.

Photo credit: Green Mechanic

S.no Name of Casting Defect Probable Causes Suggested Remedies

1 Blow holes
Excessive moisture
content in molding
sand.
Rust and moisture
on chills
Cores not sufficiently
baked.
Excessive use of
organic binders.
Control of moisture
content.
Use of rust free
chills, chaplet and
clean inserts.
Bake cores properly
Ram the mold less
hard.
 Molds not Provide adequate
adequately vented. venting in mold and
Molds not cores.
adequately vented.
Molds rammed very
hard.

2 ​Shrinkage
​Faulty gating and ​Ensure proper
risering system. directional
Improper chilling. solidification by
modifying gating,
risering and chilling

3 ​Porosity
​High pouring ​Regulate pouring
temperatures. temperature.
Gas dissolved in Control metal
metal charge. composition.
Less flux used. Increase flux
Molten metal not proportions.
properly degassed. Ensure effective
Slow solidification of degassing.
casting. Modify gating and
High moisture and risering.
low permeability. Reduce moisture
and increase the
permeability of mold

4 ​Misruns
​Lack of fluidity ill ​Adjust proper
molten metal. pouring temperature
Faulty design. Modify design.
Faulty gating. Modify gating
system.

5 ​Hot Tears
​Lack of collapsibility ​Improves
of core. collapsibility of core
Lack of collapsibility and mold.
of mold. Modify casting
Faulty design. design.
 Hard ramming of
mold.

6 ​Mental penetration
​Large grain size and ​Use sand having
used. finer grain size.
Soft ramming of Provide hard
mold. ramming.
Molding sand or Suitably adjust
core has low pouring temperature
strength.

7 ​Cold shuts
​Lack of fluidity in ​Adjust proper
molten metal. pouring metal.
Faulty design. Modify design.
Faulty gating. Modify gating
system.

8 Cuts and washes

​Low strength of mold Improve mold and
and core. core strength.
Lack of binders in Add more binders to
facing and core facing and core
stand. sand.
Faulty gating. Improve gating.

9 Inclusions
​Faulty gating. Modify gating
Faulty pouring. system.

Inferior molding or Improve pouring to

core sand. minimize turbulence

Soft ramming of Use of superior san

mold. of good strength.
Provide hard,
Rough handling of
ramming.
mold and core.

10 Fusion
​Low refractoriness in ​Improve
molding sand. refractoriness of
Faulty gating. sand.
 Too high pouring Modify gating
temperature of the system.
metal. Use Lower pouring
Pouring facing sand. temperature.
Improve the quality
of facing sand.

Read more about the next 10 Green Sand Casting defects and their remedies at Mechanical Engineer.

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