11/28/2017 Identifying Casting Defects | AFS

Join AFS | AFS Store | Online Library | Contact Us

Search AFS Go
Advanced Search

Log In

Events & Magazines & Education & Government Technical & About AFS &
News Multimedia Careers & EHS Management the Institute

Home

In This Section Identifying Casting Defects Print Share RSS

A faulty casting has arrived at your facilitys door. Youre not exactly sure whats
wrong with it, but from what youve heard, youre pretty sure its porosity.

You call your metalcaster. You tell the quality control manager youve got porosity.
She wants to know more.

Youre stumped.

What you have on your hands is a cavity-type defect. While many kinds of these
defects exist, most buyers and designers of castings know them only as porosity. If you
could just give the quality control manager a more specific defect name, shed know
its root cause and therefore how to fix it.

Below are descriptions of defect types and their correct terminology.

1.Upon machining, small, narrow cavities appear on your casting faces.

Defect:

Dispersed ShrinkageCharacteristic of
cast iron, these cavities are most often
perpendicular to the casting surface,
with depths as great as 0.8 in. (2 cm).
The casting defect is most commonly
caused in iron components by low
carbon content or high nitrogen
content in the melt.

2.Several castings in your shipment

are showing thin bits of metal at the
parting line.
Dispersed Shrinkage Defect: FlashProjections at the
parting line occur when clearance
between the top and bottom of the metalcasting mold halves is great enough to allow
metal to enter and solidify. The metalcaster must take more care in pattern, mold and
coremaking to eliminate flash or remove it in the cleaning room after pouring.

3.One of your iron castings fractures and reveals smooth, slightly curved facets on the
fracture face.
Defect: Conchoidal or Rock Candy FractureThis defect is characterized by
separation along the grain boundaries of primary crystallization. The resulting
configuration is often compared to the appearance of rock candy. The defect is caused
in steel castings by elevated aluminum and nitrogen levels.

4.Your casting has smooth-walled, rounded cavities of various sizes clumped together
in one area.

Defect:

Blowholes/PinholesThe interior
walls of blowholes and pinholes can be
shiny, more or less oxidized or, in the
case of cast iron, covered with a thin
layer of graphite. The defects can
appear in any region of a casting. They
are caused when gas is trapped in the
metal during solidification.
Blowholes/Pinholes
5.Your iron casting has folded, shiny
films in its walls.
Defect: Lustrous CarbonThese folded or wrinkled films are distinctly outlined and
found within the walls of iron castings, causing a linear discontinuity in the structure.
Generally, they are seen only upon fracturing a casting. The defects form when
materials from mold or core additives and binders volatize, decompose and become
entrained in the melt.

6.Upon x-ray, you observe a cavity in

the middle of your casting.
http://www.afsinc.org/content.cfm?ItemNumber=6944 1/3
11/28/2017 Identifying Casting Defects | AFS
the middle of your casting.
Defect: Axial ShrinkageAll metal
shrinks as it solidifies. Axial (or
centerline) shrinkage, most often
plate-like in shape, occurs when the
metal at the center of the casting
takes longer to freeze than the metal
surrounding it. The defect is partly a
function of the section thickness
designed into the casting, but it also
can be influenced by the metalcasters
pouring temperature, alloy purity,
riser use and pouring speed. Lustrous Carbon

7.A protrusion of metal is sticking out

of a 90-degree corner of one of your
castings.
Defect: Fillet VeinThese types of
metallic projections can divide an
interior casting angle in half. This
defect can occur when too much
binder in the sand causes a crevice to
form in a mold or core during mold
preparation or casting. The
metalcaster will reduce or modify its
binder usage to alleviate the defect.

Axial Shrinkage 8.All your casting dimensions are

incorrect in the same proportion.
Defect: Improper Shrinkage AllowanceAll casting alloys shrink as they solidify, but
each does so at a different rate. This defect can occur when the patternmaker uses a
shrink rule (constant) that differs from the actual shrinkage of the alloy used. The
pattern will have to be remade to account for this defect.

9.Your casting is essentially complete except for more or less rounded edges and
corners.
Defect: MisrunThis defect can occur with the use of any casting alloy, but in the case
of iron, the surface is generally shiny and easily cleaned. The problem can come about
due to a lack of alloy fluidity, slow mold filling, inadequate venting of the mold and (in
permanent molding) low temperatures.

10.Your casting has a partial separation in one of its walls.

Defect: Cold ShutCold shuts vary in depth and can extend either partially or all the
way through a casting section. This defect may be accompanied by rounded casting
edges (also common to misruns, detailed in question 9). Cold shuts generally occur on
wide casting surfaces in thin, difficult-to-fill sections, or where two streams of metal
converge in the mold during filling.

11.Your casting has been stored for some time, and when you pull it out for assembly,
you notice it has bent out of specification.
Defect: Warped CastingDistortion due to warpage can occur over time in a casting
that partially or completely liberates residual stresses. Common practice in iron casting
is normalizing heat treatment to remove residual stress. In aluminum casting, a
straightening between quench and aging might be required.

12.Your iron casting has branched grooves of various lengths with smooth bottoms and
edges.
Defect: BuckleOccurring in all ferrous alloys and sometimes in copper-base castings,
the defect is caused by the expansion of silica sand. The defect distinguishes itself
from a scab (see question 18) in that it does not allow penetration of the metal into
the adjacent cavity below.

13.Very small grooves (less than 0.5 in.) on the surface of your casting are almost
covered by a folded edge.
Defect: Rat TailThis shallow defect occurs in ferrous and nonferrous green sand
castings. Rat tails most often extend from the area where the metalcaster gates the
casting. Rat tails may be accompanied by other projection-like defects. Metalcasters
can alleviate this defect by altering their sand mixture.

14.Your iron casting has spherical particles coated with oxide inside it. The particles
are the same chemical composition as the base metal.
Defect: Cold Shot (Shot Metal)Not to be confused with a cold shut, this defect occurs
when small droplets of metal fall into a metalcasting mold, solidify and fail to remelt
when the remaining metal is introduced to the mold. The defect is caused primarily by
faulty pouring practices, but it also can be influenced by misplaced runners and risers.
Metalcasters can stop the defect from occurring by improving pouring conditions and
protecting the mold openings against metal splashing.

15.Small, gray-green, superficial cavities in the form of droplets or shallow spots

appear on your iron castings.
Defect: Slag InclusionsA reaction between the mold and ferrous metals can cause the
formation of a low-melting slag, which can adhere to the casting surface. When the
inclusions are dislodged during shot-blasting, a rounded cavity is left behind. The
defect is especially common in steels with high chromium contents. The metalcaster
will reduce pouring temperatures and cool the castings in a reducing atmosphere to
correct the problem.

16.Irregular projections crop up on one side of a vertical casting surface near the
parting line.
Defect: Ramoff/RamawayThis defect is characterized by a thickening of the casting
in the vicinity of the parting line or an increase in dimension of a surface parallel to
the parting line. It is caused by improper mold creation (ramming), which has in turn
caused the sand to separate from certain vertical walls of the pattern.

17.Plate-like metallic projections with rough surfaces jut up parallel to the casting
f
http://www.afsinc.org/content.cfm?ItemNumber=6944 2/3
11/28/2017 Identifying Casting Defects | AFS
surface.
Defect: Kish Graphite InclusionsThis ferrous casting defect appears as coarse (not
smooth) porosity, filled with graphite. It generally becomes visible upon casting
machining. The defect is caused by an excessive carbon equivalent in the melt, slow
cooling or great differences in section thickness. A redesign on the part of the casting
end-user may be in order to address this defect.

18.Your iron casting shows local accumulations of coarse graphite. The graphite has
moved into the shrinkage cavities.

Defect:

Expansion ScabAnother defect caused

by the expansion of molding or core
sand, expansion scabs can occur in
ferrous or copper-based castings. The
thin metallic projections with sharp
edges are generally parallel to the
surface of the casting and have very
rough surfaces. They are usually
attached to the casting at only a few
Expansion Scab points and are otherwise loose.

19.Waves of fold markings without discontinuities appear on your casting.

Defect: Seams or ScarsThis defect, which generally occurs on horizontal or convex
surfaces of thin castings, distinguishes itself from a rat tail in that the two edges of
each individual groove are at the same level. The defect may appear in conjunction
with kish graphite (detailed in question 18). Sand is not the cause of this defect.
Rather, it is metallurgical.

20.Lines of extra metal that look like veins

appear on your casting surface.
Defect: VeiningThis defect occurs when cracks
appear on a sand mold due to sand contraction,
which is caused by heat. The metalcaster must
regulate its sand composition and heating to
keep veining from occurring.

Seams or Scars

American Foundry Society

1695 North Penny Lane
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Tel: +1-800/537-4237, +1-847/824-0181
Fax:+1-847/824-7848 Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Site Map | Log In

http://www.afsinc.org/content.cfm?ItemNumber=6944 3/3