274 FTJ November 2010

The concept of high quality in castings is defned as the

absence of signifcant entrainment defects, which include,
mainly, bubbles and biflms. Here Prof John Campbell of
the University of Birmingham explains why he believes
foundrymen should upgrade their gravity flling system designs
to the naturally pressurised system, or abandon gravity flling
systems for a good counter-gravity system to improve quality
and save on costs.
The bubbles are air bubbles entrapped during the turbulence of the pour.
Biflms are the doubled-over oxide flms, also entrained during pouring
and flling processes. Biflms are much more serious defects leading
to dispersed micro-porosity, cracking, and poor elongation and fatigue
performance. Avoidance of these threats to quality and performance is
relatively easily achieved by the use of improved and lower cost flling
designs. Alternatively, for the future, gravity is recommended to be
abandoned in all our foundries in favour of counter-gravity flling or other
non-turbulent techniques for flling moulds. Ultimately, improved quality
can be achieved at signifcantly lower cost.
The concept of quality in castings



Fig.1 A schematic illustration of (a) a defect-free bottom gated system and (b) top
gating, leading to turbulence, leading to entrainment defects

Fig. 2 Radiographs of reduced pressure test of the same metal showing bifilms (a) at 1
atm retaining compact bifilms and (b) at 0.1 atm showing unfurled bifilms as flat cracks

Fig. 3 Comparison of (a) traditional and (b) naturally pressurised filling systems


Figure 1 (a) (b)

10 mm 10 mm

Figure 2 (a) (b)



Figure 1b
Figs 1a & 1b
The fact that the properties of metals have
been subject to scatter has been with metallurgists
for so long that the problem is hardly noticed. In
fact a number of quality assurance systems have
developed to allow for the taking of a second
sample test bar if the frst fails unexpectedly.
The occurrence of low mechanical properties
has traditionally been assigned to the presence
of porosity in the cast metal. However, the
occurrence of porosity in cast metals has presented
an intractable problem, simply because porosity
cannot, theoretically, occur. There seems no
way to promote the nucleation of porosity, even
when considering the most favourable types of
heterogeneous nuclei. This has been demonstrated
by theoretical treatise many times
(1)
.
The whole problem of the initiation of porosity
is solved at a stroke if entrainment defects are
considered. It is proposed that the content of
FTJ November 2010 275
Feeding and Gating
entrained defects controls the quality of cast metals.
This defect content can be controlled by good metal
treatment and good casting techniques.
The entrainment process
In their molten state, many metals and alloys exhibit a
solid surface flm of oxide
(1)
. The flms are particularly
noticeable in alloys such as those based on Al and
Mg, but are also seen in Al-deoxidised carbon steels,
many stainless steels, aluminium bronzes, ductile iron,
and nickel-based superalloys cast in vacuum (since
the so-called vacuum contains plenty of residual
oxygen of course).
The flm grows off the surface of the liquid, so
that its underside is in perfect atomic contact with
the liquid, since it has grown atom by atom. The top
surface is, however, dry and crystalline. Thus on being
folded over (fg.1) during the pouring of the melt, or
during turbulent stirring, the surface flms fold over dry
side to dry side, and so guarantees that practically
zero bonding can occur across the flm-to-flm
interface. The defect entrained by this simple folding-
in action has all the features of a crack in the liquid.
Very turbulent handling of the melt can fll the liquid
with an immense density of cracks.
It is easily shown theoretically that if the liquid has
a velocity above about 0.5 m/s it will have suffcient
energy to jump or splash high enough to entrain its
surface during its subsequent fall. The liquid can gain
this energy simply by a fall of only about 12mm
(2,3)
.
Thus all pouring actions of melts are seen to impair
the quality of the metal, some very seriously.
The cracks in liquid Al alloy can be easily
observed
(4)
by the simple technique of reducing
the pressure on the liquid to 0.1 atmosphere, thus
expanding the residual layer of air between the flms
by a factor of 10. The cracks open suffciently to be
recorded by x-ray radiography (fg.2).
Once entrained, the double flms are ravelled
into compact clumps by the action of the internal
turbulence that always accompanies the pouring of
castings. In this form they are tolerably harmless, the diameter of the defect
generally being in the range 0.1 to 1.0 mm. However, during solidifcation,
the re-establishment of quiescent conditions allows the double flms to re-
open, unravelling, to take on the form of planar cracks. Thus by this action
they effectively increase in size by about a factor of 10, becoming defects
in the range of 1.0 to 10 mm in diameter (although sometimes as large 100
mm diameter in some large stainless steel and Ni-base alloy castings). This
evolution is seen in fg.2a and 2b. The defects now constitute serious cracks.
The metamorphosis of the defects from compact to open cracks is driven
by a number of mechanisms:
Hydrogen precipitation in the air layer between the flms
Shrinkage, reducing the pressure acting on the flms (analogous to the
1/100 atm experiment described above)
ron precipitation in the form of beta phase in Al-Si alloys
Large grain size, encouraging extensive rafts of dendrites to straighten
the flms by an inclusion pushing action.
All these mechanisms have been observed in the author's laboratory
during the past year. Interestingly, all these factors effectively embrittle (or
perhaps more accurately, reduce the ductility of) the important structural
aluminium-silicon alloys. Thus the loss of ductility observed as a result of the
actions of hydrogen porosity, shrinkage porosity, high iron levels, and large
grain size, all occur as a result of their action in opening the compact and
convoluted double oxide flms, to convert them to serious cracks, lowering
the properties and reliability (i.e. the quality) of the castings.
The production of quality castings
Prior to pouring the casting, it is necessary to frst clean up the melt from
entrained biflms so far as possible. This is relatively easy in dense metals
such as copper and ferrous alloy, where the previously entrained oxides
foat out quickly. t is relatively easy for Mg alloys where the alloy is so light
that the oxides sink quite quickly. However, for Al alloys the oxides remain
in suspension for long periods, many hours, because they are close to being
neutrally buoyant.
For Al alloys therefore treatment by rotary degassing together with the use
of molten surface fuxes is helpful.
Once the melt is clean it is important to transfer it into the mould without,
so far as possible, folding over the surface at any time, thereby folding in an
entrainment defect. This is a challenge. Up to now, nearly all so-called non-
turbulent flling system designs are hopelessly turbulent, although their failure
to live up to their name is not generally realised.
The most perfectly effective non-turbulent flling system is counter-gravity
10 mm

Figure 2a
10 mm

Figure 2b
Figs 2a & 2b
276 FTJ November 2010

(a) (b)
Figure 3
flling
(5)
. The famous Griffn process for steel railroad wheels, serving about
70% of the freight rolling stock in the USA is testament to the technical and
cost effectiveness of this process.
For gravity pouring of moulds, unfortunately the flling exercise is always
accompanied by some damage to the liquid metal. Thus the design of a good
flling system is really a damage limitation exercise.
To start with, a major problem is the pouring basin. The universal conical
funnel basin could hardly be worse, dragging in at least 50% air into the melt
as it enters the flling system. Better basin designs have been developed,
such as the offset step design
(5)
, but by far the best solution is to eliminate
basins completely, by converting to contact pouring techniques using a
bottom-stoppered ladle.
The remainder of the design of the flling system should be my 'naturally
pressurised' variant. This approach contrasts with the pressurised flling
systems used for cast irons, and the non-pressurised systems often used
for light alloys, both of which systems are now known to be highly damaging
to metal quality. The naturally pressurised system gently pressurises the
melt against the walls of the flling channels, completely avoiding any sand
inclusions. (If sand inclusions are found in the casting it is a certain indicator
that the flling system design is poor it does not mean the sand quality is
poor!)
Other features of the naturally pressurised system is that it forbids the use
of wells at the sprue/runner junction which create turbulence and bubbles,
and instead replaces this with a simple radiussed turn which behaves
beautifully, not entraining a single bubble.
The new naturally pressurised system is particularly economical in use of
metal as a result of its extremely slim channels, designed to be only large
enough to completely fll with metal, and so allowing no additional volume for
air. The channels fll in one pass, pushing air ahead instead of mixing with
the air.
The gates into the mould cavity are sized to reduce the fnal entry velocity
to below 1.0 m/s and preferably to below 0.5 m/s if possible. If this is not
possible, as happens for many castings, either a flter is needed to reduce
the velocity earlier in the system, usually at the runner entrance, or a surge
control system is needed
(5)
.
By always ensuring to gate at the lowest point on the casting, and at
velocities lower than the critical velocity for surface turbulence, the flling
of the mould also takes place in a progressive way, pushing air ahead,
and rolling out the surface oxide against the walls of the mould as the melt
rises, and so generating an excellent surface fnish. The surface flm forms
a mechanical barrier between the melt and the mould, helping to bridge
perturbations such as sand grains. Grey iron castings made in this way in
highly carbonaceous moulds do not have an oxide surface flm, but a carbon
surface flm. They can 'shine' with a smooth coat of lustrous carbon when
broken out of the mould (the lustrous carbon only becomes a problem when
folded in by turbulence to create a carbon biflm, thus acquiring the properties
of a crack).
Quality features
The features of a casting made with good quality
metal, and which has entered the mould without
undue surface turbulence are impressive. There
is usually no microporosity (since biflm nuclei are
absent), no bubbles entrained during pouring, no
hot tearing (it is likely that all hot tears are formed on
oxide biflms), high strength, high elongation and high
fatigue resistance as a result of the absence of Griffth
crack initiating sites, which are mostly, if not always,
biflms.
In addition, the leak tightness and corrosion
resistance of the casting is enhanced because fuids
and corrodants cannot penetrate the casting along
the easy pathways provided by the inner unbonded
interfaces between biflms. t seems likely that the
little-understood problem of stress corrosion cracking
might also be eliminated in quality castings.
Castings are also resistant to blister defects that
arise during high temperature heat treatment. This
is because blisters are generally caused by biflms
near to the surface which are infated by the inward
diffusion of hydrogen at high temperatures.
Conclusion
Foundrymen are strongly urged to upgrade their
gravity flling system designs to the naturally
pressurised system, or, even better, abandon gravity
flling systems for a good counter-gravity system.
Castings are not only improved technically, and
stringent specifcations more easily met, but are in
general signifcantly lower cost.
References
Campbell J. 'Castings', Elsevier 2003.
Runyoro J, Boutorabi S M A and Campbell J.
'Critical gate velocities for flm-forming casting
alloys. Trans AFS 1992, 100, 225-234.
Campbell J. Invisible macrodefects in castings.
Journal de Physique V Colloque C7 supplement
au Journal de Physique III 1993, 3, 8610872.
Fox S and Campbell J. 'Visualisation of oxide flm
defects during solidifcation of aluminium'. Scripta
Mat. 2000, 43, (10) 881-886.
Campbell J. 'Casting Practice: The 10 Rules of
Casting, Elsevier 2004.
Feeding and Gating
FTJ November 2010 277
Here Bob Puhakka of Alloy Casting Industries
(Ontario, Canada) describes the background
that led him to pursue a new approach to
the methoding of steel castings which has
revolutionised the company.
Bob spent his frst fve years in the industry at
a commercial testing laboratory performing full,
comprehensive analysis on thousands of metal
castings of every conceivable alloy type and
moulding method. As part of the role he sectioned,
machined, ground, prepared, polished, macroetched,
microetched, pulled, bent, impacted, indented all
manner of cast product. Bob said: "When a person
performs each and every step of a comprehensive
failure analysis with their own hands from beginning-
to-end a few repeatable features gradually and
steadily accumulate to fnally become strikingly
obvious: the casting defects causing failure in almost
every single casting were of the same morphology
- independent of alloy or moulding method. For
instance, a high-pressure aluminium diecasting, a
bronze gravity sand casting and a titanium investment
casting all failed for exactly the same reason.
However, the reason was not clear. An odd,
anomalous feature was present on the fracture
surface, discernible quite clearly under the scanning
electron microscope (SEM). Furthermore, its presence
was experimentally confrmed by a dramatic reduction
in associated mechanical properties.
For fve years he struggled to ascertain the true
nature of this defect. Bob referred to an industry bible
for the answer 'Castings' by Prof John Campbell
(1)
.
He then set about dedicating the following four years
perfecting a metal delivery system design ideally
suited to avoid the generation of these defects; with
90% of the work being accomplished in the past 18
months.
Methodology
To avoid oxides it seemed rational to adopt a system that would assist with
the elimination of air from the fowing stream. For this reason, the naturally
pressurised flling system design was adopted
(2)
. This is a system in which
the areas of the flling channels are calculated by fnding the velocity, V, at
each fall distance, h, from the melt level in the pouring basin, assuming no
friction. The approach, which is well-known to casting method engineers,
is therefore a simple balance between potential energy, mgh, and kinetic
energy, mV
2
/2. The difference in this situation is to accept these areas and
provide the flling system with only these calculated areas at every point
throughout the downsprue and runners. Only the gates would be increased
in size to reduce the velocity of entry to the mould to the critical 0.5 m/s if
possible (on occasions this would be raised to 1.0 m/s if necessary, but not
beyond this already 'stretched' limit to the rule). A typical 'sprue exit/runner/
gate ratio for such a system might vary from 1:1:4 to 1:1:20. It must be
stated however that the pre-selection of such a ratio has no part to play in
the design of a proper fll system; the ratios simply happen, occurring as a
result of the design process.
It is also worth noting that, to the authors knowledge, the standard
technique of increasing the area of the runner to reduce the velocity of
the fow, using for instance a ratio 1:2:4 or other expansional ratios, does
not work. t merely provides an unflled runner in which turbulence can be
generated to damage the fow
(2)
.
The system requires a specially designed pouring basin of an offset
stepped type
(2)
, to reduce so far as possible the ingress of air into the
entrance to the flling system. The benefts of such a design were recently
excellently illustrated with a video of a water model by workers at CANMET
(3)
.
(Campbell
(2)
describes a contact pour technique using bottom-teemed ladles
to exclude air at the sprue entrance but our lip pour techniques suited to our
size of casting did not require this particular solution).
The sprue needs to have its taper correctly calculated. Although Campbell
recommends a curved hyperbolic taper
(2)
it was judged that the castings at
Alloy Casting ndustries were not suffciently tall to beneft greatly from such
sophistication. Thus so far they have calculated only the sprue entrance and
the sprue exit and connected the two with a straight taper which works well
with the limited size of casting poured there (1-2,500kg).
The other major feature of this approach is that only bottom gating into
the mould cavity can be permitted; otherwise the melt falls inside the mould
Steel foundry quality revolution
Fig. 1 A 250kg
carbon steel pump
casing immediately
after removal from
the mould and
initial shot-blasting.
Traditional ll
system designs
cannot produce a
casting with this
level of cleanliness
278 FTJ November 2010
Feeding and Gating
cavity, exceeding the critical fall distance of a few millimeters in which gravity
accelerates it to above its critical velocity, so that it starts to jump and splash,
creating surface turbulence and entraining defects such as bubbles and
biflms (and sand inclusions, which are an excellent indication of a turbulent
flling system not an indication of poor moulding sand). Thus gating at the
mould joint (for traditional horizontally parted moulds) has become a feature
of the past a luxury that can no longer be risked or afforded. Along with
blind risers, conical pouring basins and runner chokes; parting line gating
serves as a corner-cutting, cost-saving practice that produces damaged
castings.
A fnal discipline is the modeling of every casting to check that the
methoding is complete. Thus the action of the flling system is carefully
studied to ensure that no pockets of air remain after the frst pass of liquid.
Such pockets allow turbulence and the entrainment of air and oxides. The
system needs to be seen to fll, to pressurise gently against the mould walls
(the natural pressurisation concept, arising from the friction generated by the
fow against the channel walls) and stay full during the flling process. Having
flled successfully with only metal (no air in the form of bubbles), the feeding
system is then checked to ensure that there is no danger of shrinkage. For
some castings this exercise is not always straightforward. The provision of
a bottom gate and high level (top if possible) feeders sometimes requires
turning the casting through 180 before a workable solution can be found.
Occasionally, much use of heavy chills is required to generate favourable
temperature gradients.
It is at this step that one notices the vast difference in approach compared
to the traditional methoding practices. The traditional approach selected the
casting orientation based on the 'easiest' way to feed the casting, with the fll
system being only an after-thought. The new approach begins with assessing
how to fll the mould as perfectly as possible; and then fnds a way to meet
the feeding requirements. The fll system takes precedence.
Only when both flling of the mould cavity is seen to be tranquil, and the
action of the feeders is seen to be adequate to all locations of the casting,
is the tooling built, the mould made and fnally poured. t has become
interesting to note that the pouring of the mould is no longer viewed as being
in the lap of the gods, but is now viewed as an expected confrmation of the
methoding technique.
That is not to say that failures have not been experienced. These have
occasionally occurred as a result, for instance, of
forgetfulness or oversight of some key aspect of the
design prior to pouring. Such mistakes have been
embarrassing. They illustrate the fallibility of a regime
in which a single person is totally responsible, but at
the same time working under pressure in a production
environment. Clearly, like all professional engineering
designs, at least one other competent person checks
and signs off the design prior to manufacture.
The naturally pressurised fll system is now used
exclusively at Alloy Casting ndustries. Castings are
produced from the entire family of ferrous engineering
alloys in sizes ranging from 1 to 2,500kg. The design
parameters remain fully intact, and are scalable to any
casting one wishes to pour.
Conhrmation by results
Cast steel components are notorious for their need
for excessive dressing, rework and cosmetic repair.
The majority of the imperfections visible on the
surface are reoxidation inclusions
(4)
resulting from the
entrainment of air during the flling of the mould. There
is no better way to establish the initial quality of a steel
casting than to view the casting immediately following
shakeout; before any additional work is performed.
Its a situation that does not allow for the disguising of
quality defects.
The carbon steel (ASTM A216 WCB) pump casing
shown in fgs.1 and 2 has been shaken out and
put through the coarse shot blaster to remove the
remaining adhering mould material. The casting is
incredibly clean and devoid of all manner of inclusions
and evidence of shrinkage and tearing. This is a pump
casing that needs to be fully pressure tight; being
subjected to full magnetic particle inspection (MPI),
liquid penetrant inspection (LPI) and radiographic
testing (RT) to insure this condition.
Fig. 3 is a photograph of the essentially vacant weld
repair booth illustrating the real-world impact the new
concepts and methods have had.
Looking to the future, it seems reasonable to
suppose that the solution proposed in this article for
alloyed and stainless steels will similarly apply to
all metals, including Mg and Al alloys, bronzes, and
Ni-base superalloys. This system has already been
proved to be effective in the casting of a wide variety
of Ni-base superalloys, brasses, bronzes and high-
conductivity (essentially pure) copper.
Conclusions
The majority of casting defects (including gas porosity,
shrinkage porosity, hot tears, leakers and reoxidation
inclusion) are the result of defects (mainly double
oxide flms) entrained by the flling process.
The use of conventional flling systems with conical
pouring basins, non-tapered sprue, choked runners,
parting line gated, etc. cannot solve these problems.
A naturally pressurised flling system design
can practically eliminate entrained defects,
giving essentially perfect castings. Castings are
characterised by good surface fnish, freedom from
leaks, surface inclusions, porosity, hot tears and
cracks.
Absence of upgrading work, dressing and welding,
has brought signifcant economies. Additionally, the
absence of rework avoids the unintentional masking
Fig. 2 A further image of the carbon steel pump casing shown in g.1. Note the
impressive cleanliness and the complete lack of shrinkage or tearing at the changes
in geometry. Reoxidation inclusions are completely eliminated by using a naturally
pressurised ll system
FTJ November 2010 279
Feeding and Gating
of initially unseen defects that may contribute to
subsequent service failures.
It seems reasonable to suppose that the casting
manufacturing systems presented here would apply
to metals and alloy of all types. The author has
validated the success of these techniques on a very
broad range of alloys in the steel, white/grey/ductile
iron, brass, bronze, Ni-base superalloys and high-
conductivity (pure copper) alloy families.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Prof John Campbell, author
of Castings for his continued advice and
encouragement.
The volume of work required to complete a full
conversion to the new concepts and methods is
almost unfathomable; 18 months of 80-hour work
weeks and hundreds of heated exchanges could
have brought the process to a halt if not for the
perseverance of the leaders within our skilled
workforce. My sincere thanks to my excellent co-
workers at Alloy Casting ndustries in New Hamburg.
References
1. Campbell J. Castings, 2003 Elsevier.
2. Campbell J. Casting Practice, 2004 Elsevier
3. Kuyucak S. 68th World Foundry Congress,
Chennai, India 2008 (February) pp 483-48.
4. Svoboda J M, Monroe R W, Bates C E, Griffn J;
Trans AFS 1987, 95, 187-202.
About the Author
Bob Puhakka is the technical specialist of process and metallurgy at Alloy
Casting Industries in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada. Bob is a foundry
engineering professional specialising in metal casting technology and
process metallurgy.
Author of the Blog and YouTube channel 'Cast Differently' (bobpuhakka.
blogspot.com) Bob continues to be directly involved in the technology
developments shaping the future of the metal casting industry.
email: bobpuhakka.blogspot.com
Fig. 3 An example of what the companys weld repair booth looks like these days;
essentially vacant. The cast product no longer requires upgrading. The company
now dresses contact points and parting line features only
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