4 Gating Systems for Casting

Objectives
 Understand the importance of the various
elements present in a gating system
 Design the gating system for different
castings
 Appreciates the risering requirements and
design them for different castings


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 Gating System
 Gating systems refer to all those
elements, which are connected with the
flow of molten metal from the ladle to the
mould cavity.
 Pouring basin,
 Sprue,
 Sprue base well,
 Runner,
 Runner extension,
 In-gate, and
 Riser.
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 Gating System
 The mould should be completely filled in the
smallest time possible without having to raise the
metal temperatures or use higher metal heads.
 The metal should flow smoothly into the mould
without any turbulence. A turbulent metal flow
tends to form dross in the mould.
 Unwanted material such as slag, dross and other
mould material should not be allowed to enter
the mould cavity.
 The metal entry into the mould cavity should be
properly controlled in such a way that aspiration
of the atmospheric air is prevented.

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 Gating System
 A proper thermal gradient be maintained so
that the casting is cooled without any
shrinkage cavities or distortions.
 Metal flow should be maintained in such a
way that no gating or mould erosion takes
place.
 The gating system should ensure that enough
molten metal reaches the mould cavity.
 The gating system design should be
economical and easy to implement and
remove after casting solidification.
 Ultimately, the casting yield should be
maximised.
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Elements of a Gating System
 Pouring basin
 Molten metal is poured into a pouring
basin, which acts as a reservoir from
which it moves smoothly into the sprue.
 The pouring basin is also able to stop the
slag from entering the mould cavity by
means of a skimmer or skim core as
shown in Fig 4-2.

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 Pouring Basin
 The molten metal in the pouring basin
should be full during the pouring
operation, otherwise a funnel is likely to
form through which atmospheric air and
slag may enter the mould cavity.
 In order that the metal enters into the
sprue without any turbulence it is
necessary that the pouring basin be deep
enough, and also the entrance into the
sprue be a smooth radius of at least 25
mm.
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 Pouring Basin
A strainer core is a ceramic coated
screen with many small holes. It
helps in providing a smooth flow
while restricting the flow of slag into
the mould.
 A ceramic filter as shown in Fig 4-4b
completely stops slag and only clean
metal is allowed to go into the sprue
and also ensures a constant flow of
metal.
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 Sprue
 Sprue is the channel through which the
molten metal is brought into the parting
plane where it enters the runners and
gates to ultimately reach the mould
cavity.
 To eliminate this problem of air aspiration
the sprue is tapered to gradually reduce
the cross section as it moves away from
the top of the cope as shown in Fig
4-5(b).
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 Sprue Base Well
 This is a reservoir for metal at the bottom
of the sprue to reduce the momentum of
the molten metal.
 The molten metal as it moves down the
sprue gains in velocity, some of which is
lost in the sprue base well by which the
mould erosion is reduced.
 This molten metal then changes direction
and flows into the runners in a more
uniform way.
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 Runner
 It is generally located in the horizontal
plane (parting plane), which connects the
sprue to its in-gates, thus allowing the
metal enter the mould cavity.
 The runners are normally made
trapezoidal in cross section.
 When the amount of molten metal coming
from the down sprue is more than the
amount flowing through the in-gates, the
runner would always be full and thus slag
trapping would takes place.
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 Runner Extension
 The runner is extended a little further
after it encounters the in-gate. This
extension is provided to trap the slag in
the molten metal.
 The metal initially, comes along with the
slag floating at the top of the ladle and
flows straight, going beyond the in-gate
and then trapped in the runner extension.

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 Gates or Ingates
 These are the openings through which the
molten metal enters the mould cavity.
 The shape and the cross section of the
ingate should be such that it can readily
be broken off after casting solidification
and also that it allow the metal to enter
quietly into the mould cavity.
 Top gate
 Bottom gate
 Parting gate
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 Riser
 The volumetric shrinkage during
solidification causes voids as shown in Fig
4-13 unless additional molten metal is fed
into these places which are termed as hot
spots since they remain hot till the end.
 The reservoirs of molten metal to feed
these hot spots are called risers

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 Riser
 The top riser is the most conventional and
convenient to make. But the position
where it can be placed is limited. The top
being open loses heat to the atmosphere
by radiation and convection.
 The blind riser since it is surrounded by
the moulding sand would lose heat slowly
and thus would be more effective. Also it
can be located more conveniently than an
open riser.
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 Chill
 Chills are essentially, large heat sinks.
Whenever, it is not possible to provide a
riser for a part of the casting which is
heavy, a chill is placed close to it as
shown in Fig 4-14, so that more heat is
quickly absorbed by the chill from the
larger mass making the cooling rate equal
to that of the thin sections.

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 Gating System Design
 Bernoulli's equation

 Law of continuity

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 Pouring Time
 The pouring time depends on the casting
materials, complexity of the casting,
section thickness and casting size.
 Grey cast iron, mass less than 450 kg
 T
K 1.41 + W s
 Pouring time, t = 14.59

Fluidity of iron in inches
 Where K = 40

 T = average section thickness, mm
 W = mass of the casting, kg
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 Choke Area
 Choke area controls and establishes the
metal flow into the mould cavity

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 Gating Ratios
 Non-pressurised
 A non-pressurised gating system having choke
at the bottom of the sprue base, having total
runner area and in-gate areas higher than the
sprue area.
 Sprue : runner : in-gate :: 1 : 4 : 4
 Pressurised
 In a pressurised gating system normally the in-
gate area is the smallest, thus maintaining a
back pressure throughout the gating system.
 sprue : runner : in-gate :: 1 : 2 : 1
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 In-gate Design
 Ingate should not be located near a protruding
part of the mould to avoid the striking of vertical
mould walls by the molten metal stream.
 Ingates should preferably be placed along the
longitudinal axis of the mould wall.
 Ingates should not be placed near a core print or
a chill.
 Ingate cross sectional area should preferably be
smaller than the smallest thickness of the casting
so that the in-gates solidify first and isolate the
castings from the gating system. This would
reduce the possibility of air aspiration through
the gating system in case of metal shrinkage.
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 Risering Design
 The function of a riser is to feed the
casting during solidification so that no
shrinkage cavities are formed.

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 Caine's Method
 Chvorinov has shown that the
solidification time of a casting is
proportional to the square of the ratio of
volume to surface area of the casting.
 2
V
 ts = k
SA
 where ts = solidification time, s
 V = volume of the casting
 SA = surface area
 k = mould constant
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 Caine's Method
 Caine’s relationship is
a
 X= -c
Y-b

SAcasting / Vcasting
 X =
SAriser / Vriser

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 Modulus Method
 It has been empirically established that if
the modulus of the riser exceeds the
modulus of the casting by a factor of 1.2,
the feeding during solidification would be
satisfactory.

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 Naval Research Laboratory Method
 The length, width and thicknesses are
computed from the maximum dimensions
of the casting section.

Length + Width
Thickness

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 Feeding Aids
 Feeding aids keep the metal molten in the
riser for a long time
 Exothermic materials
 Insulating shields
 Riser sleeves

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 Summary
 Gating and risering systems are important for
the final quality of the casting achieved. To
this extent, there are a number of elements
that are present in the path of the molten
metal.
 Pouring basin, sprue, sprue base well, runner
and runner extension serve the purpose of
allowing clean molten metal to enter the
mould cavity.
 Parting gate is the most widely used gate
while the top and bottom gates are some
times used for specific applications that
favour them.
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 Summary
 Fluid mechanics laws together with
empirical relations are applied to design
the optimum gating system.
 It is important to make sure that slag
entering the gating system be removed
completely before the metal enters the
mould cavity.
 Risers compensate for the volumetric
shrinkage taking place during the
solidification of the molten metal inside
the mould cavity.
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 Summary
 Caine’s method provide a simple
procedure to size the risers in sand
castings, while the modulus method is
more elaborate and provides a better
design.
 Some times chills may need to be added
to reduce porosity at isolated sections that
are not fed by risers.
 To reduce the size of risers feeding aids
such as riser sleeves are often used.
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