Journal of Dental Research

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Pressure Distribution in Centrifugal Dental Casting

John P. Nielsen
J DENT RES 1978; 57; 261
DOI: 10.1177/00220345780570022001
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Pressure Distribution in Centrifugal Dental Casting

JOHN P. NIELSEN

Department of Dental Material Science, College of Dentistry, New York University,

342 East 26 Street, New York, New York 10010, USA
Equations are developed for liquid metal mary 15-cm radius machines, his equation
pressure in centrifugal dental casting, giv- incorporates an error of as much as 20%
en the instantaneous rotational velocity, on the high side.
This brief review of the literature reveals
density, and certain dimensions of the casting machine and casting pattern. A "refer- that there is indeed a need for some kind of
ence parabola" is introduced making the applied pressure over simple gravity feed
fluid pressure concept more understand- for dental castings, and that there is interable. A specially designed specimen dem- est in the question of a quantitative meaonstrates experimentally the reference pa- sure of the acting liquid pressure in the
mold.
rabola at freezing.
Hydraulic Analysis

J Dent Res 57(2): 261-269, 1978.

Centrifugal dental casting machines appeared on the market about 19071 2 soon
after Taggart3 introduced his air pressure
dental casting machine. When the cast inlay technique was developed just a few
years before4 5 some kind of applied pressure on the liquid metal to be cast appeared necessary. Since that time the reasons for the applied pressure became clearer: (1) to win the race in filling out the
mold before freezing occurs (Tuccillo, Ida
et a17), (2) To counteract the surface tension effect in filling sharp margins (Nitkin
and Asgar8), and (3) To force remnant air
out of the mold cavity (Phillips9).
Myers'0 attempted to calculate casting
pressure for dental gold centrifugal casting, as did Ida et al,I' but they used solid
body mechanics instead of hydraulics. Donoho,"2 however, did invoke fluid mechanics for steel centrifugal casting, but his
equations were designed for hollow pipe
castings. Hanazawal3 made fluid pressure
calculations for dental centrifugal casting,
but a truncation of the final equation in his
derivation rendered the equation limited
to large radii cases (he applied it to a 40cm radius machine), whereas for the custoReceived for publication October 19, 1976.
Accepted for publication August 29, 1977.

THE REFERENCE PARABOLA.

In fluid me-

chanics textbooks, 14 the equation is derived

for the free-surface contour of a liquid in a
rotating vessel. On rotating the vessel with
an angular velocity c, the free surface
climbs along the wall and produces a paraboloid contour (Fig 1). The equation
of the parabola of revolution for this figure is:

Cc2
=

x2

[1]

2g

In this case, two terms serve as constants:

c, the rotational speed, and g, the acceleration due to the earth's gravity. No density
term appears, indicating the regardless of
the liquid, be it water, oil, or a high density alloy, the paraboloid contour is exactly
the same for a given c, assuming a steady
state, i.e. the vessel and liquid rotating at
the same speed. If there is acceleration in
the rotation, the contour still remains a
true paraboloid of revolution at all times,
but a continually changing one, whereby
the liquid continues to climb along the vessel wall. The parabola of equation [1] for a
given cc will be referred to as the "reference

parabola.'?
THE PRESSURE EQUATION.

With the

reference parabola established, we can

261

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262

NIELSEN

FIG 1. -Cross section of the parabola contour on free surface of

liquid rotating at speed w.

Pressure,

Pi=

(X2 X12) D

~ Y3

2gL,
/

Reference
Parabola

II

J Dent Res February 1978

Y
x

FIG 2. - Positioning of casting

reference parabola for establishing pressure distributions along
length of casting for horizontal centrifugal casting machine.
on

Y2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I
j1

II

-0-

XI
X2

Xl

2g

X4

X3

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VOl. 5 7 NO. 2

CASTING PRESSURE

now obtain the fluid pressure for any point

in the liquid by simply calculating the
"head", yD, y being the vertical height
from the point to the free surface and D,
the weight density of the liquid.
For the case of the horizontally rotating
casting machines, the only free liquid surface is the button surface, and this forms
part of the reference paraboloid surface
demanded by the rotation. However, the
liquid pressure distribution in the mold is
exactly the same were the paraboloid surface complete. We can schematically demonstrate this by raising the casting until the
button surface contour coincides with the
reference parabola (see Figure 2). The
pressure at any given point xi in the casting
along the sprue axis is now calculated simply from the imaginary head (yi - y,)D,
where yi is the height of the parabola at xi,
and y, is the height of the sprue axis. This

yields the equation

Pi
or

=
=

(yi

[2]

yl)D

2- (x -x)D,

2g

or, in still another form,

- C,2z (21 xi - 12)D

[4]

263

Equation [3] can be modified to give the

pressure at points in the casting other than
along the sprue axis. All we need do is add
the term F Ay1D, where F Ayi represents
the distance from the point in question to
the sprue axis, the upward distance taking
the minus sign. Thus
i

(x'

x)

Ayi] D. [3']

As an example, assume that the rotation

speed is 8 rps, that x3, the end point of the
pontic, is 15 cm, and xl, the button surface, is 12 cm, from the rotation axis, both
points being on the sprue axis line, and
that the liquid alloy density is 16 gm/cc.
The pressure at X3 using equation [3] is

P3 =

(2(I8)2 (152 -

2 x 980

122)16 [gmn/cm2]

- 1670gm/cm2,
= 1.67 Kg/cm2 (23.75 psi.).
or
It is of interest to refer to "G", the ratio
of centrifugal pressure over the earth's gravity pressure. The G for any point xi is simply the slope at xi of the reference parabola. Thus, the average slope of the button
surface in the vertical cross section gives
the G value at the button. The G for the
example described above at the button is
,2

where 1, is the length from the button surface to the xi point along the sprue axis.
(Equ /"ion [3] is derived in the Appendix,
as is equation [1] for the reference para-

bola.)
-

GI= -xi

[5]

g
= 30.9
or
(At X3 the G value becomes 38.6.) Thus, by
making a simple slope measurement on the

---

T5-i
/-I-I

Reference
Circle

ri

FIG 3. - Positioning of casting

on reference circle for obtaining r
values for pressure distribution calculations for vertical centrifugal

r2

r3
r4

P=22g (ri2

rj

casting machine.

2) D

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J Dent Res February 1978

NIELSEN

264

K-- KERR
T - - TORIT
TT - THERMOTROL

(X) --NUMBER OF WINDS

0
0
uLJ

cn

ccLL 8

a.

F-

LL

cc 4

0
2

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

TIME (seconds)
FIG 4. -Rotation speeds

comes

Pi=

r(r
r)D.

[6]

2g

In this case, the free surface (the button

surface) no longer forms the reference paraboloid, but rather a cylindrical surface, r
= ri (see Figure 3). However, the earth's
gravity has another interesting effect. The
pressure here is a pulsating one during
rotation. At the r3 point on the casting, this
pulsating pressure would be
P3 - centrifugal pressure +
gravity pressure

P3

=-

for three casting machines.

where t is the time in seconds. The

versus time

button, we have a measure of the pressure

effectiveness of the horizontal centrifugal
casting machine. The greater the rotational velocity and the radial distance, the
greater is the button slope, and hence G.
For the vertical rotating casting machine, such as the Torit, the pressure equation is of the same form as equation [3].
Going to cylindrical coordinates, this be-

(ri -ri) D + (r3- r) Dg sin X t, [7]

gravity
ripple effect by equation [7] for the example illustrated above fluctuates between
plus and minus 0.047 Kg/cm2, which is
negligible relative to the 1.67 Kg/cm2 overall pressure. (It might however have a mild
grain refining effect.)
PARAMETERS FOR THE PRESSURE EQUATION. - Equations [3] and [6] indicate
that liquid pressure distributions can be
calculated for all points in a filled mold
providing we know the following quantities: the instantaneous rotational speed,
the liquid metal density, and the distances
from the rotation axis to (1) the button surface and (2) to the point in question. All
these quantities are measurable to a fair
degree of precision, within 1 %, so that the
calculated pressure values need not be off
by more than 10 %, and with a little extra
effort, less than 5 %.
Rotational speed. -The spring-wound
centrifugal casting machine has speeds of
rotation in which there is a maximum w
obtained at just about the reverse number

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Vol. 57 No. 2

CASTING PRESSURE

of turns used to wind the spring. This maximum generally occurs within a second,
followed by a mild deceleration due to air
and bearing sources of friction.1' We are
interested in the pressure in the molten
metal up to the moment of solidification of
a rigid shell around the casting. The solidification time according to Ida et al, 15 Kuroda et al, 16 and Kelly,'7 ranges from
about 0.5 second for the edge of thin margins to about 15 seconds for the cross section of a heavy pontic. Since the surface
shell begins to solidify early in the solidification, the pressures of interest are those
occurring within the first ten seconds or so.
The pressures within the first half second
or so can be ignored, as this is the period of
mold filling.
An adjustable speed stroboscope, General Electric Type 1531-AB STROBOTAC,
was used to clock speeds of rotation.
(Tachometers are on the market for making the same measurements.) For the portion of the curve within a couple of sec onds, polaroid photos were made using a
1/25 second shutter speed while the stroboscope was flashing. If the flashes were at,
say, 300 per second, 12 radial positions
would be found in the photograph. By
measuring total angles swept by the 12 positions and dividing this by the shutter
speed, we obtained w. With a little practice
this could be done for the very start of rotation.
Figure 4 gives the rotation speeds versus
time plots obtained for three different casting machines for different winds, as indicated. (These curves are not necessarily
representative, as they were obtained simply on the machines that were on hand in
our laboratory.)

Density. -The liquid metal density was

taken from a physical property chart for
room temperature densities, and corrected
for the lowered density of the liquid state
including superheat, e.g. 15.5 gm/cm3 less

6%.
Radial measurements. - In all cases,
these measurements in centimeters were
made simply by measuring the distance
from the rotation axis to the back support
of the casting ring and then subtracting the
next appropriate measured distance, all to
the nearest 0.1 cm.

265

PRESSURE CURVES.
The rps versus
time curves of Figure 4 can be converted
into pressure versus time curves by use of
equations [3] and [6]. Such converted
curves are given in Figure 5, showing the
pressure range, along the sprue axis line,
from the sprue junction to the casting tip,
which range is shown as a shaded band.
(For points off the sprue axis line, for the
horizontal machines, a correction is made
by addition, or subtraction, of hD, where h
is the distance to the sprue axis, and D, the
weight density. These corrections are generally negligible for the small dental castings.)
For the case of the Torit vertical casting
machine, there is a pressure ripple effect of
constant amplitude but decaying frequency which should be superimposed on the
pressure curves. An attempt is made in Figure 5 to show sections of this ripple effect at
41h and 8 seconds. There is a race for the
solidification of the button surface before
the ripple effect becomes comparable to
the centrifugal pressure. If the race is lost,
liquid metal will drop down from the casting when the mold is in the upright position during rotation.
The pressure curves of Figure 5 show a
decreasing pressure with time, once the
mold is filled. Which pressures in the
ranges shown are significant for dental
castings? As mentioned, at sharp margins,
solidification begins within a second or so,
while for thicker sections, solidification
may occur after several seconds. The time
interval of interest is that during which a
durable solidification shell in the casting is
formed. The casting interior, especially in
heavy section dental castings, may take up
to 15 seconds to solidify, but the pressure
no longer plays an important role after a
solid shell is formed, except for course to
still hold the remnant liquid metal in the
mold and perhaps to compress any gas
bubbles to smaller sizes, and to force them
to migrate toward the lower pressure end
of the casting and sprue.
Experimental Reference Parabolas

It is worthwhile examining the button

surface on a casting. The fluid pressure at
this surface is zero but the contour of the
rim should conform approximately to the

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266

NIELSEN

_~ ~ ~

reference paraboloid for the horizontal

machine, and to the reference cylinder for
the vertical machines. It can be observed,
incidentally, that the button contour is
generally not biased toward either the
PRESSURE

Kg
cm2

J Dent Res February 1978

trailing edge or the leading edge of the

mold. This is because the free-surface contour must always be a surface of rotation,
even during angular acceleration, thus no
pressure difference develops in the lateral

Thermotrol

2
1

\>
Kg
cm2

Psi

--128.4
-14.2

5
6
Time (secs.)

'-I '

10

-156.9

~~~~Torit

<

-142.7

lI

56.9

----42.7

Psi
- 28.4

_~~~~~~~PonticEnd

pIu
I:
I'

14.2

5
6
Time (secs.)

A%

10

Kerr - Broken Arm

4
3

Kg2
cm
21

---42.7
Psi

---28.4

Sprue

11

---114.2
I
_I

----56.9

...

'.

Time (secs.)
FIG 5.

Pressure gradient bands along the length

pontic casting for three different casting ma--

of a
chines.

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10

I-....

n}
Uw

267

CASTING PRESSURE

Vol. 57 No. 2

tion have a pronounced effect on the

stream path.
Significant reference parabolas sections
were produced by a special specimen design (Fig 6a). For this specimen the pattern
called for 1.5 cc of metal. However, if only about 0.5 cc of metal (about one third) is
cast, the pattern will be filled only to that

direction in the mold after it is filled. Intuition tends to lead one to expect incorrectly
that the pressure favors the trailing edge on
first acceleration of the centrifugal rotation, and the leading edge on later deceleration. It is another matter of course while
the metal is flowing into the mold. 18 Then
the rotational acceleration and decelera0.3

1 cm

cm

It
Fi(. 6. --- (a) Pattern for determining reference parabola in horizontal centrifugal casting machine.
(b) Partially filled casting giving
two points on reference parabola.

Reference
Parabola

(a)

(b)

Free

surface
F ree

--

Fi

surface

2 rps

| /4 rps

.001 kglcm2

.006

(.02 psi)

(.0)

kg/cm2

.02

.36

kg/cm2

1 4

kg/crm2

32 rps
5.6

kgcm,2

22.7

kg/cm2

(323 psi)

(81 psi)

(20 psi)

(5 psi)

kg/cm2

(1.3 psi)

sLrf ace
16 rps

.09

F ree

F ree
surface

F ree|
surface

kg/cm2

(.32 psi)

psi)

V.

2.52 rps

,Z:

3. 1 1 ps

".2

..:

I.Ml'.fll

-1

63.24 rps

.92 rps

.Z-

FIG 7. -Free-surface contours obtained on partially filled slab molds at different rotation speeds of cen-

trifugal casting machine. (Schematics above actual

specimens below.)

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268

NIELSEN

J Dent Res February 1978

shown in Figure 6b. The curve d surface

shown is a section of the referencl e parabola. By measuring u and v and the- distance
from the rotation axis to the caisting extremity the equation for the paral )ola is obtained. More simply, the curvatu.ire of the
specimen can be matched to thez best fitting parabola in a parametric ser-ies of parabolas on a chart, the parameterr being w.
This means that regardless of the metal used, the finding of the reference parabola
establishes the speed of rotation aLt the moment of freezing. There is a min )r correction that is necessary, for pre(cision, to
compensate for the shrinkage of u and v on
solidification and cooling.
Figure 7 shows, in the upper F)ortion, 8
schematic free-surface contours of such
partially filled castings, representting rotation speeds from 1/4 rps to 32 rps. For each
sketched specimen, there is givern the cal
culated pressure for the lower rigrht corner
point of the specimen. For this hiypothetical casting machine, the pressur e may be
as low as 0.02 psi to as high as 323 psi.
Below the set of schematics a]re photographs of four actual specimens showing
the free surface contour. The meLtal WaS a
palladium -silver alloy. * Casting w'ere made
in a Thermotrol unit, t starting wiith 5/6ths
of a "wind" and then doubling, tripling,
1

*Albacast, J.F. Jelenko & Co.

+J.F. Jelenko & Co.
(A

Rotating vessel.

!ction area A.

FIG 8. - Schematic showing imaginary horizontal

liquid channel of cross section A, inside a r otating liquid, exerting centrifugal pressure at point ((X.YI).
[,

and quadrupling this wind to obtain the

series shown. The rps figures were obtained
by matching the contour with the theoretical contours just above. From these rps figures, and using Figure 4, it is possible to
determine rather precisely when the free
surface solidified. For this series of 3-mm
thick specimens, the curved contours froze
at 7 seconds.
In summary, the reference parabolas for
centrifugal casting are readily calculated
from measured rotation speeds, from
which pressure distributions for all points
in a dental casting before solidification can
be calculated. Also, specimens can be cast
which give the reference parabolas directly. These tools should be useful in future
dental casting research.
References

1. ROTHSTEIN, R. J.: History of Dental LabPhiladelphia: J. B. Lippencott

oratories,
~~~1958,
p XX.
2. VAN HORN, C. S.: Concerning Casting
Methods and Casting Devices, Dent Cosmos, 53:664-670, 1911.
3. TAGGART, W. H.: A New and Accurate
Method of Making Gold Inlays, Dent Cosmos, 49:1117-1121, 1907.
4. PHILBROOK, D.: Cast Fillings, Iowa St Dent
Soc Trans, 227-279, 1896-1897.
5. MARTIN, O.: Laboratory-Made Fillings
Fixed with Cement. Southern Dent J,
11:201-203, 1892.
6 TUCCILLO, J. J.: Centrifugal Force and
Castability, The Thermotrol Technzician,
25(3):1-4, 1971.
7. IDA, K., and OTANI, H.: Procedures for
Determining Practical Casting Conditions,
J Osaka Univ Dent Sch 9:63-73, 1969.
8. NITKIN, D., and ASGAR, K.: An Evaluation
of Alloys Alternative to Type III Golds for
Use in Fixed Prosthodontics, JADA,
93:622-629, 1976.
9. PHILLIPS, R. W.: Studies on the Density of
Castings as Related to Their Position in the
Ring,JADA 35:329-342, 1947.
10. MYERS, R. E.: Time Required to Cast Gold
by Centrifugal Force, JADA, 28:20002017, 1941.

11. IDA, K.; DAITA, K.; KAWAI, S.; and

YAMAGA, R.: Casting Pressure Produced by
Gaseous Pressure Casting Apparatus and

Speed of Revolution of Centrifugal Casting

Machine,J Osaka Univ Dent Sch, 10:35-46,
1970.

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Vol. 5 7 No. 2

CASTING PRESSURE

12. DONOHO, C. K.: Centrifugal Casting of

Steel, Trans Am Foundrymen's Ass, 52:
313, 1945.
13. HANAZAWA, K., HYODO, H.; and KATO,
M.: On the Centrifugal Casting Machine of
Toshi-Type Rinsho-Shika-Gahuko (in Jap-

anese),J Clin Dent, 4:110-117, 1947.

14. GILES, R. V.: Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics. Schaum's Outline Series, New
York: McGraw Hill, pp 42-50, 1962.
15. IDA, K.; DAITA, K.; OTANI, H.; and

269

YAMAGA, R.: Studies on Fundamental and

Practical Factors in Dental Casting. II. Solidification Time, J Osaka Univ Dent Sch,
9:49-61, 1969.
16. KURODA, T.; IDA, K.; and YAMAGA, R.:
Solidification Time in the Sprue During
Casting, J Osaka Univ Dent Sch 11: 17-50,
1971.
17. KELLY, G. P.: Study of Porosity and Voids
in Dental Gold Castings, J Dent Res

49:986-995, 1970.

APPENDIX
Derivation of Equations [3] and [1]

The schematic sketch of Figure 8 shows the trace of the free-surface contour in the XY
plane as a vessel containing a nonviscous liquid rotates around the Y axis.
P

F/A

from basic definition, where F is the force

applied perpendicularly to a small surface
A, and P is the pressure.

mw2x/A

from mechanics of centrifugal force:

F = ma = mv2/x = mco2x
where m is the mass of a particle, a, its acceleration; v, the linear velocity of the particle rotating in a circle of radius x; and c
is the angular velocity.

SZ

from fluid mechanics (see Fig 8) where

(D/g A dx) is the mass of a slice dx of an
imaginary channel, cross section area A, in
the rotating liquid at height yi, extending
horizontally from x, to xi, D being the
weight density of the liquid and g the gravitational constant.

x (-A dx)

DcoWI2
9

Dw2

2g II

gl

removing the constants from the integrand

xdx
xi
x72]

[3]

equation [3] is obtained after integration,

where g is in in/sec2; Cw in radians/sec; x, in
inches; and D in lbs/cu in, the pressure Pi
is in psi at point (xi, yi).

Since in fluids the pressure at a point is the same in all directions, it is required that the
vertical gravity head at (xi, y,) matches that of the horizontal pressure induced by centrifugal force. Thus we are led to equation [1], for the reference parabola.
where xi is made zero, and x is the general
independent variable and P is the pressure

pDw2x2

2g

w2x2
2g

[1]

at y, =

0.

since P

yD in hydraulic statics.

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