Runner (casting)

In metalworking and jewelry making, casting is a process in which a liquid metal is delivered into a mold (usually by a crucible) that contains a negative impression (i.e., a three-dimensional negative image) of the intended shape. The metal is poured into the mold through a hollow channel called a sprue. The metal and mold are then cooled, and the metal part (the ''casting'') is extracted. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods.

Casting processes have been known for thousands of years, and have been widely used for sculpture (especially in bronze), jewelry in precious metals, and weapons and tools. Highly engineered castings are found in 90 percent of durable goods, including cars, trucks, aerospace, trains, mining and construction equipment, oil wells, appliances, pipes, hydrants, wind turbines, nuclear plants, medical devices, defense products, toys, and more.

Traditional techniques include lost-wax casting (which may be further divided into centrifugal casting, and vacuum assist direct pour casting), plaster mold casting and sand casting.

The modern casting process is subdivided into two main categories: expendable and non-expendable casting. It is further broken down by the mold material, such as sand or metal, and pouring method, such as gravity, vacuum, or low pressure.

Expendable mold casting

Expendable mold casting is a generic classification that includes sand, plastic, shell, plaster, and investment (lost-wax technique) moldings. This method of mold casting involves the use of temporary, non-reusable molds.

Sand casting

Sand casting is one of the most popular and simplest types of casting, and has been used for centuries. Sand casting allows for smaller batches than permanent mold casting and at a very reasonable cost. Not only does this method allow manufacturers to create products at a low cost, but there are other benefits to sand casting, such as very small-size operations. The process allows for castings small enough fit in the palm of one's hand to those large enough for a train car bed (one casting can create the entire bed for one rail car). Sand casting also allows most metals to be cast depending on the type of sand used for the molds.

Sand casting requires a lead time of days, or even weeks sometimes, for production at high output rates (1–20 pieces/hr-mold) and is unsurpassed for large-part production. Green (moist) sand, which is black in color, has almost no part weight limit, whereas dry sand has a practical part mass limit of . Minimum part weight ranges from . The sand is bonded using clays, chemical binders, or polymerized oils (such as motor oil). Sand can be recycled many times in most operations and requires little maintenance.

Loam molding

Loam molding has been used to produce large symmetrical objects such as cannon and church bells. Loam is a mixture of clay and sand with straw or dung. A model of the produced is formed in a friable material (the chemise). The mold is formed around this chemise by covering it with loam. This is then baked (fired) and the chemise removed. The mold is then stood upright in a pit in front of the furnace for the molten metal to be poured. Afterwards the mold is broken off. Molds can thus only be used once, so that other methods are preferred for most purposes.

Plaster mold casting

Plaster casting is similar to sand casting except that plaster of paris is used instead of sand as a mold material. Generally, the form takes less than a week to prepare, after which a production rate of 1–10 units/hr-mold is achieved, with items as massive as and as small as with very good surface finish and close tolerances.. Plaster casting is an inexpensive alternative to other molding processes for complex parts due to the low cost of the plaster and its ability to produce near net shape castings. The biggest disadvantage is that it can only be used with low melting point non-ferrous materials, such as aluminium, copper, magnesium, and zinc.

Shell molding

Shell molding is similar to sand casting, but the molding cavity is formed by a hardened "shell" of sand instead of a flask filled with sand. The sand used is finer than sand casting sand and is mixed with a resin so that it can be heated by the pattern and hardened into a shell around the pattern. Because of the resin and finer sand, it gives a much finer surface finish. The process is easily automated and more precise than sand casting. Common metals that are cast include cast iron, aluminium, magnesium, and copper alloys. This process is ideal for complex items that are small to medium-sized.

Investment casting

Investment casting (known as lost-wax casting in art) is a process that has been practiced for thousands of years, with the lost-wax process being one of the oldest known metal forming techniques. From 5000 years ago, when beeswax formed the pattern, to today's high technology waxes, refractory materials, and specialist alloys, the castings ensure high-quality components are produced with the key benefits of accuracy, repeatability, versatility, and integrity.

Investment casting derives its name from the fact that the pattern is invested, or surrounded, with a refractory material. The wax patterns require extreme care for they are not strong enough to withstand forces encountered during the mold making. One advantage of investment casting is that the wax can be reused.

The process is suitable for repeatable production of net shape components from a variety of different metals and high performance alloys. Although generally used for small castings, this process has been used to produce complete aircraft door frames, with steel castings of up to 300 kg and aluminium castings of up to 30 kg. Compared to other casting processes such as die casting or sand casting, it can be an expensive process. However, the components that can be produced using investment casting can incorporate intricate contours, and in most cases the components are cast near net shape, so require little or no rework once cast.

Waste molding of plaster

A durable plaster intermediate is often used as a stage toward the production of a bronze sculpture or as a pointing guide for the creation of a carved stone. With the completion of a plaster, the work is more durable (if stored indoors) than a clay original which must be kept moist to avoid cracking. With the low cost plaster at hand, the expensive work of bronze casting or stone carving may be deferred until a patron is found, and as such work is considered to be a technical, rather than artistic process, it may even be deferred beyond the lifetime of the artist.

In waste molding a simple and thin plaster mold, reinforced by sisal or burlap, is cast over the original clay mixture. When cured, it is then removed from the damp clay, incidentally destroying the fine details in undercuts present in the clay, but which are now captured in the mold. The mold may then at any later time (but only once) be used to cast a plaster positive image, identical to the original clay. The surface of this plaster may be further refined and may be painted and waxed to resemble a finished bronze casting.

Evaporative-pattern casting

This is a class of casting processes that use pattern materials that evaporate during the pour, which means there is no need to remove the pattern material from the mold before casting. The two main processes are lost-foam casting and full-mold casting.

Lost-foam casting

Lost-foam casting is a type of evaporative-pattern casting process that is similar to investment casting except foam is used for the pattern instead of wax. This process takes advantage of the low boiling point of foam to simplify the investment casting process by removing the need to melt the wax out of the mold.

Full-mold casting

Full-mold casting is an evaporative-pattern casting process which is a combination of sand casting and lost-foam casting. It uses an expanded polystyrene foam pattern which is then surrounded by sand, much like sand casting. The metal is then poured directly into the mold, which vaporizes the foam upon contact.

Non-expendable mold casting

Non-expendable mold casting differs from expendable processes in that the mold need not be reformed after each production cycle. This technique includes at least four different methods: permanent, die, centrifugal, and continuous casting. This form of casting also results in improved repeatability in parts produced and delivers near net shape results.

Permanent mold casting

Permanent mold casting is a metal casting process that employs reusable molds ("permanent molds"), usually made from metal. The most common process uses gravity to fill the mold. However, gas pressure or a vacuum are also used. A variation on the typical gravity casting process, called slush casting, produces hollow castings. Common casting metals are aluminum, magnesium, and copper alloys. Other materials include tin, zinc, and lead alloys and iron and steel are also cast in graphite molds. Permanent molds, while lasting more than one casting still have a limited life before wearing out.

Die casting

The die casting process forces molten metal under high pressure into mold cavities (which are machined into dies). Most die castings are made from nonferrous metals, specifically zinc, copper, and aluminium-based alloys, but ferrous metal die castings are possible. The die casting method is especially suited for applications where many small to medium-sized parts are needed with good detail, a fine surface quality and dimensional consistency.

Semi-solid metal casting

Semi-solid metal (SSM) casting is a modified die casting process that reduces or eliminates the residual porosity present in most die castings. Rather than using liquid metal as the feed material, SSM casting uses a higher viscosity feed material that is partially solid and partially liquid. A modified die casting machine is used to inject the semi-solid slurry into reusable hardened steel dies. The high viscosity of the semi-solid metal, along with the use of controlled die filling conditions, ensures that the semi-solid metal fills the die in a non-turbulent manner so that harmful porosity can be essentially eliminated.

Used commercially mainly for aluminium and magnesium alloys, SSM castings can be heat treated to the T4, T5 or T6 tempers. The combination of heat treatment, fast cooling rates (from using uncoated steel dies) and minimal porosity provides excellent combinations of strength and ductility. Other advantages of SSM casting include the ability to produce complex shaped parts net shape, pressure tightness, tight dimensional tolerances and the ability to cast thin walls.

Centrifugal casting

In this process molten metal is poured in the mold and allowed to solidify while the mold is rotating. Metal is poured into the center of the mold at its axis of rotation. Due to inertial force, the liquid metal is thrown out toward the periphery.

Centrifugal casting is both gravity and pressure independent since it creates its own force feed using a temporary sand mold held in a spinning chamber. Lead time varies with the application. Semi- and true-centrifugal processing permit 30–50 pieces/hr-mold to be produced, with a practical limit for batch processing of approximately 9000 kg total mass with a typical per-item limit of 2.3–4.5 kg.

Industrially, the centrifugal casting of railway wheels was an early application of the method developed by the German industrial company Krupp and this capability enabled the rapid growth of the enterprise.

Small art pieces such as jewelry are often cast by this method using the lost wax process, as the forces enable the rather viscous liquid metals to flow through very small passages and into fine details such as leaves and petals. This effect is similar to the benefits from vacuum casting, also applied to jewelry casting.

Continuous casting

Continuous casting is a refinement of the casting process for the continuous, high-volume production of metal sections with a constant cross-section. It's primarily used to produce a semi-finished products for further processing. Molten metal is poured into an open-ended, water-cooled mold, which allows a 'skin' of solid metal to form over the still-liquid center, gradually solidifying the metal from the outside in. After solidification, the strand, as it is sometimes called, is continuously withdrawn from the mold. Predetermined lengths of the strand can be cut off by either mechanical shears or traveling oxyacetylene torches and transferred to further forming processes, or to a stockpile. Cast sizes can range from strip (a few millimeters thick by about five meters wide) to billets (90 to 160 mm square) to slabs (1.25 m wide by 230 mm thick). Sometimes, the strand may undergo an initial hot rolling process before being cut.

Continuous casting is used due to the lower costs associated with continuous production of a standard product, and also increased quality of the final product. Metals such as steel, copper, aluminum and lead are continuously cast, with steel being the metal with the greatest tonnages cast using this method.

Upcasting

The upcasting (up-casting, upstream, or upward casting) is a method of either vertical or horizontal continuous casting of rods and pipes of various profiles (cylindrical, square, hexagonal, slabs etc.) of 8-30mm in diameter. Copper (Cu), bronze (Cu· Sn alloy), nickel alloys are usually used because of greater casting speed (in case of vertical upcasting) and because of better physical features obtained. The advantage of this method is that metals are almost oxygen-free and that the rate of product crystallization (solidification) may be adjusted by in a crystallizer - a high-temperature resistant device that cools a growing metal rod or pipe by using water.

The method is comparable to Czochralski method of growing silicon (Si) crystals, which is a metalloid.

Terminology

Metal casting processes uses the following terminology:

*Pattern: An approximate duplicate of the final casting used to form the mold cavity.
*Molding material: The material that is packed around the pattern and then the pattern is removed to leave the cavity where the casting material will be poured.
*Flask: The rigid wood or metal frame that holds the molding material.
**Cope: The top half of the pattern, flask, mold, or core.
** Drag: The bottom half of the pattern, flask, mold, or core.
*Core: An insert in the mold that produces internal features in the casting, such as holes.
**Core print: The region added to the pattern, core, or mold used to locate and support the core.
*Mold cavity: The combined open area of the molding material and core, where the metal is poured to produce the casting.
* Riser: An extra void in the mold that fills with molten material to compensate for shrinkage during solidification.
*Gating system: The network of connected channels that deliver the molten material to the mold cavities.
**Pouring cup or pouring basin: The part of the gating system that receives the molten material from the pouring vessel.
** Sprue: The pouring cup attaches to the sprue, which is the vertical part of the gating system. The other end of the sprue attaches to the runners.
**Runners: The horizontal portion of the gating system that connects the sprues to the gates.
**Gates: The controlled entrances from the runners into the mold cavities.
*Vents: Additional channels that provide an escape for gases generated during the pour.
*Parting line or parting surface: The interface between the cope and drag halves of the mold, flask, or pattern.
*Draft: The taper on the casting or pattern that allow it to be withdrawn from the mold
*Core box: The mold or die used to produce the cores.
*Chaplet: Long vertical holding rod for core that after casting it become the integral part of casting, provide the support to the core.

Some specialized processes, such as die casting, use additional terminology.

Theory

Casting is a solidification process, which means the solidification phenomenon controls most of the properties of the casting. Moreover, most of the casting defects occur during solidification, such as '' gas porosity'' and ''solidification shrinkage''.

Solidification occurs in two steps: ''nucleation'' and ''crystal growth''. In the nucleation stage, solid particles form within the liquid. When these particles form, their internal energy is lower than the surrounded liquid, which creates an energy interface between the two. The formation of the surface at this interface requires energy, so as nucleation occurs, the material actually undercools (i.e. cools below its solidification temperature) because of the extra energy required to form the interface surfaces. It then recalescences, or heats back up to its solidification temperature, for the crystal growth stage. Nucleation occurs on a pre-existing solid surface because not as much energy is required for a partial interface surface as for a complete spherical interface surface. This can be advantageous because fine-grained castings possess better properties than coarse-grained castings. A fine grain structure can be induced by ''grain refinement'' or ''inoculation'', which is the process of adding impurities to induce nucleation.

All of the nucleations represent a crystal, which grows as the heat of fusion is extracted from the liquid until there is no liquid left. The direction, rate, and type of growth can be controlled to maximize the properties of the casting. Directional solidification is when the material solidifies at one end and proceeds to solidify to the other end; this is the most ideal type of grain growth because it allows liquid material to compensate for shrinkage.

Cooling curves

Cooling curves are important in controlling the quality of a casting. The most important part of the cooling curve is the ''cooling rate'' which affects the microstructure and properties. Generally speaking, an area of the casting which is cooled quickly will have a fine grain structure and an area which cools slowly will have a coarse grain structure. Below is an example cooling curve of a pure metal or eutectic alloy, with defining terminology.

Note that before the thermal arrest the material is a liquid and after it the material is a solid; during the thermal arrest the material is converting from a liquid to a solid. Also, note that the greater the superheat the more time there is for the liquid material to flow into intricate details.

The above cooling curve depicts a basic situation with a pure metal, however, most castings are of alloys, which have a cooling curve shaped as shown below.

Note that there is no longer a thermal arrest, instead there is a freezing range. The freezing range corresponds directly to the liquidus and solidus found on the phase diagram for the specific alloy.

Chvorinov's rule

The local solidification time can be calculated using Chvorinov's rule, which is:

:$t = B \left( \frac \right)^n$

Where ''t'' is the solidification time, ''V'' is the volume of the casting, ''A'' is the surface area of the casting that contacts the mold, ''n'' is a constant, and ''B'' is the mold constant. It is most useful in determining if a riser will solidify before the casting, because if the riser does solidify first then it is worthless.

The gating system

The gating system serves many purposes, the most important being conveying the liquid material to the mold, but also controlling shrinkage, the speed of the liquid, turbulence, and trapping dross. The gates are usually attached to the thickest part of the casting to assist in controlling shrinkage. In especially large castings multiple gates or runners may be required to introduce metal to more than one point in the mold cavity. The speed of the material is important because if the material is traveling too slowly it can cool before completely filling, leading to misruns and cold shuts. If the material is moving too fast then the liquid material can erode the mold and contaminate the final casting. The shape and length of the gating system can also control how quickly the material cools; short round or square channels minimize heat loss.

The gating system may be designed to minimize turbulence, depending on the material being cast. For example, steel, cast iron, and most copper alloys are turbulent insensitive, but aluminium and magnesium alloys are turbulent sensitive. The turbulent insensitive materials usually have a short and open gating system to fill the mold as quickly as possible. However, for turbulent sensitive materials short sprues are used to minimize the distance the material must fall when entering the mold. Rectangular pouring cups and tapered sprues are used to prevent the formation of a vortex as the material flows into the mold; these vortices tend to suck gas and oxides into the mold. A large sprue well is used to dissipate the kinetic energy of the liquid material as it falls down the sprue, decreasing turbulence. The ''choke'', which is the smallest cross-sectional area in the gating system used to control flow, can be placed near the sprue well to slow down and smooth out the flow. Note that on some molds the choke is still placed on the gates to make separation of the part easier, but induces extreme turbulence. The gates are usually attached to the bottom of the casting to minimize turbulence and splashing.

The gating system may also be designed to trap dross. One method is to take advantage of the fact that some dross has a lower density than the base material so it floats to the top of the gating system. Therefore, long flat runners with gates that exit from the bottom of the runners can trap dross in the runners; note that long flat runners will cool the material more rapidly than round or square runners. For materials where the dross is a similar density to the base material, such as aluminium, ''runner extensions'' and ''runner wells'' can be advantageous. These take advantage of the fact that the dross is usually located at the beginning of the pour, therefore the runner is extended past the last gate(s) and the contaminates are contained in the wells. Screens or filters may also be used to trap contaminates.

It is important to keep the size of the gating system small, because it all must be cut from the casting and remelted to be reused. The efficiency, or ', of a casting system can be calculated by dividing the weight of the casting by the weight of the metal poured. Therefore, the higher the number the more efficient the gating system/risers.

Shrinkage

There are three types of shrinkage: ''shrinkage of the liquid'', ''solidification shrinkage'' and ''patternmaker's shrinkage''. The shrinkage of the liquid is rarely a problem because more material is flowing into the mold behind it. Solidification shrinkage occurs because metals are less dense as a liquid than a solid, so during solidification the metal density dramatically increases. Patternmaker's shrinkage refers to the shrinkage that occurs when the material is cooled from the solidification temperature to room temperature, which occurs due to thermal contraction.

Solidification shrinkage

Most materials shrink as they solidify, but, as the adjacent table shows, a few materials do not, such as gray cast iron. For the materials that do shrink upon solidification the type of shrinkage depends on how wide the freezing range is for the material. For materials with a narrow freezing range, less than ,. a cavity, known as a ''pipe'', forms in the center of the casting, because the outer shell freezes first and progressively solidifies to the center. Pure and eutectic metals usually have narrow solidification ranges. These materials tend to form a ''skin'' in open air molds, therefore they are known as ''skin forming alloys''. For materials with a wide freezing range, greater than , much more of the casting occupies the ''mushy'' or ''slushy'' zone (the temperature range between the solidus and the liquidus), which leads to small pockets of liquid trapped throughout and ultimately porosity. These castings tend to have poor ductility, toughness

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