Requirements, purposes or functions of the gating system

A gating system should,

• fill the mold cavity completely before freezing;
• introduce the liquid into the mold cavity with low velocity and little turbulence so
that mold erosion, metal oxidation and gas pick – up is prevented;
• help to promote temperature gradients favourable for proper directional
solidification;
• incorporate traps for the separation of non-metalic inclusions which are either
introduced with the molten metal or are dislodged in the gating system;
• regulate the rate at which liquid metal enters into the mold;
• be practicable and economical to make and;
• consume least metal. In other words (refer fig. 8.1) the metal solidified in spure,
runner, gates and risers should be minimum because gates, risers etc ., are
removed from the final casting the gating system should provide for the maximum
yield.
• For proper functioning of the gating system, the following factors need to be
controlled.
– Type of pouring equipment, such as ladles, pouring basin etc.
– Temperature/fluidity of molten metal.
– Rate of liquid metal pouring.
– Type and size of spure .
– Type and size of runner.
– Size, number and location of gates connecting runner and casting.
– Position of mold during pouring and solidification.
pouring cups and basins
pouring cups
(i) fig shows various poring cup designs.
(ii) a pouring cup makes it easier for the ladle or crucible operator to
direct the flow of metal from crucible to sprue.
(iii) a pouring cup is a funnel shaped cup which forms the top portion
of the sprue.
(iv) the pouring cup may be cut out of the sand in the upper surface
of the cope above the sprue.
pouring basins
• Fig shows two pouring basin designs.
• A pouring basin may be made out of core sand, metal or it may be cut or
molded in the cope of sand mold.
• A pouring basin
-Makes it easier for the ladder operator to direct the flow of metal
from crucible to sprue,
-Helps maintaining the required rate of metal flow,,
-Helps separating dross, slag etc., from metal before it( i.e., metal)
enters the sprue.
-Reduce turbulence and vortexing at the sprue entrance
• 4. The metal is poured away from the sprue hole.
• 5. Sometimes the down gate sprue is closed with a ball fixed on
the end of a rod the ball is lifted when the pouring basin is full.
This permits smooth filling of the mold cavity.
• 6. In another pouring basin design a dam may be built so that the
ladle operator can acquire an optimum pouring speed before the
liquid metal enters the sprue.
• 8. If pouring basins are made large,
- Dross and slog will tend to float on the surface of the
metal and may be stopped from entering the sprue and
hence the mold;
- They may be filled quickly without overflowing and may
act as a reservoir of liquid metal to compensate metal
shrinkage or contraction
spures
• A sprue feeds metal to the runner which in the reaches the casting
through the gates.
• A sprue is tapered with its bigger end at the top to receive the
liquid metal the smaller end is connected to the runner.
• The larger section being at the top will freeze after the smaller section at the
bottom and thus continue feeding liquid metal to the mold cavity. Larger section
compensates for shrinkage till the lower end solidifies
- Sprues up to 20mm diameter are round in section whereas larger sprues are often
rectangular.
- A round sprue has a minimum surface exposed to cooling and offers the lowest
resistanace to flow of metal.
- There is less turbulence in a rectangular in a rectangular sprue.
Gates charecteristics
(i) a gate is a channel which connects runner with the mold cavity
(ii) A gate should feed liquid metal at a rate constant with the rate of solidification.
(iii) The size gate depends upon the rate of solidification.
(iv) a small gate is used for a casting which solidifies slowly and vice versa.
(v)more than one gates may be used to feed a fast freezing casting
(vi)A gate should not have a sharp edges - break during pouring – sand carried to
mold
(vii) sharp edges cause localized delay in freezing – form voids - inclusions in the
cast object.
(viii) A gate may be built as the part of the pattern or it may be cut in the mold
(ix). gate basin preferably be provided to act as a reservoirs or store for molten
metal
(x). a gate basin traps loose sand and dust- stop them from entering the mold cavity
(xi). A gate basin prevents turbulent liquid metal from entering the gate.
Types of gates
1. top gate
2. bottom gate
3. parting line side gate
top gate
• A top gate is sometimes also called a drop gate because the molten metal just
drops on the sand in the bottom of the mold .
• A stream of liquid metal impinges against bottom of the mold cavity until a pool is
formed and this is kept in a state of agitation until the mold is filled
• Edge gate avoids the forceful impinging action of the molten metal stream onto the
mold cavity.
• Pencil gate though does not reduce the severity of turbulence of metal entering the
mold. It does control rate of metal flow. Slag gets removed from the the liquid
metal in the pouring cup. Pencil gates used for massive iron casting
• Gate with strainer core. A strainer core is a perforated disc of core sand or pre –
fired refactory placed
• The strainer core arrests major inclusions and reduces velocity and turbulence in
the system by breaking the force of the liquid metal stream.
• Wedge gate.
• Are used on stove plate casting and bath,
• Are in series and deliver metal rapidly from an elongated pouring basin.
• Help keeping slag back.
• Are easily broken from solidified casting.
Finger gate
• Is a modification of wedge gate,
• Is more easily broken than the wedge gate.
Ring gate
• Uses a core to break the fall of the liquid metal, Retains slag etc.,
• Sends the molten metal in the mold in proper position.
Advantages of top gating
• Simplicity for moulding. Low consumption of additional metal.
• Generation of favourable temperature gradients to enable directional
solidification from the casting towards the gate which serves as riser too
Disadvantages of top gating
• The dropping liquid metal stream erodes the mold surface.
• Dropping metal does cutting action, lifts portions of the surface and cases
scab.
• Splashing of molted metal associated with the liquid metal stream increase
chances of oxidation.
• There is lot of turbulence and pick up of air and other gases.
• Top gate is not suitable for alloys which are sluggish or prone to rapid
oxidation .
• Top gate is not favoured for non ferrous castings (aluminium and
magnesium) because of the tendency of dross formation.
Applications of top gating
• Top gates are used for gray iron casting of simple designs.
• Castings with heavy bosses (like railway driving wheel centers)and hollow cylinders
(vertically cast)employ top(pencil or pop)gates.
• Molds made up of erosion resistant materials such as preformed refactory tiles
employ top gates.
Imporving top gating
• In order to break the force of stream and to keep the slag floating in the pouring
cup, a cup strainer core may be used (refer fig 8.4d)
• The use of a large sized pouring basin will reduce the force of metal stream and
prevent dross and loose sand particles from entering the mold.
• Variations in simple top gate remove many shortcoming of a simple open pour top
gate.
(b) bottom gating
• a bottom gate is made in drag portion of the mold.
• In a bottom gate, liquid metal fills rapidly the bottom portion of mold cavity rises
steadily and gently up the mold walls.
horn gate resembles the horn of a cow.
• the mold can be made in cope and drag only;there is no need of cheek.
• the pattern which forms horn gate is withdrawn from the drag portion of the mold.
• horn gate tends to produce a fountain effect in the mold cavity.
• horn gate avoids the necessity of a core for the gate.
• another type the core forms the bottom gate.
• down gate is at a lower level than the in-gate and being curved backwards forms a trap for
slag, splashes of cold metal,dirt etc.,
bottom gate with draw – in runner
• mould is prepared in three flasks.
• this gate has a taper in a direction opposite to horn gate.
• the gate is placed tangentially on castings (like rolls) so that a spinning action is imparted
liquid metal.
• the swirling action tends to move the scum and slag to the center of the roll from where it
rise into the riser and thus the chances of slag etc., being trapped in the casting are
eliminated.
Advantages of bottom gating
• There is no scouring and splashing in the bottom gate.
• As compared to top gate, a bottom gate involves little turbulence and metal erosion.
• Bottom gate produces good casting surfaces.
Disadvantages of bottom gating
• In bottom gates, liquid metal enters the mold cavity at the bottom. If freezing takes place at
the bottom,it could choke off the metal flow before the mold is full.
• A bottom gates creates on unfavourable temperature gradient and make it difficult to
achieve directional solidification especially when the bottom gate has a riser at the top of
casting
• A bottom gates involves greater complexity of molding.
• The metal cools as it rises the mold walls and results in cold metal and cold mold near the
riser and hot metal and hot mold near the gate rather, the riser should contain hottest metal
so that it is last to solidify and can continuously feed metal to all other comparatively colder,
solidifying portions of the casting.
These difficulties can however be overcome by
• Using excessive padding of casting sections towards(top) risers so that they
do not cool fast,
• Using extra large(top) risers,
• By pouring some hot metal from the ladle directly into top risers,
• By using blind risers
• By employing side risers
• When using a side riser, the hot metal fills the riser first and then the mold
cavity and thus the gate hot spot occurs in the riser where it promotes
directional solidification.
• On the contrary with a top riser HOT SPOT (owing to overheating of the
sand) occurs at the gate entrance which if not avoided, results in shrinkage.
• Overheating of sand at a place can be minimized by the use of more than
one in gates
Applications of bottom gating
A bottom gate is employed for steel castings in order to
• Reduce erosion
• Reduce gas entrapment
• Prevent splashing which otherwise may create cold shots.
• A bottom gate is used for heavy castings.
Parting line side gate
• In parting line gates, the liquid metal enters the mold cavity from the side of the mold
(cavity) at the parting line separating cope and drag at or the level of mold joint.
• Parting line gate can be made by the pattern itself or it can be cut afterwards.
• A parting line gates sprue formed in the (sand of the) cope.
• A recess is provided at the base of the sprue to avoid the cutting of sand at this place.
Gate with skim bob and choke
• A skim bob or a recess is provided in the cope to trap slag
• A choke is provided in between the in gate.
• A choke is a restriction which controls the rate of liquid metal flow. It prevents molten metal
to enter the mold in the form of a jet and thus minimizes sand erosion.
Gate with strainer core
• Strainer core filters the liquid metal of impurities.
• Strainer core traps slag.
• Strainer core reduce metal erosion.
• If the liquid metal does not possess adequate fluidity, the use of strainer core may introduce
defects in the castings.
Gate with shrink bob
• A shrink bob serves as a metal reservoir to feed the casting as it shrinks.
• A shrink bob on the runner, thus, prevents shrinkage defect from the occurring in a casting in
front of an ingate.
• A shrink bob traps slag or dross.
Branch gate
• Fig 8.7 e is the plan view of branch gate
• This arrangement ensures clean castings.
• Slag and liquid metal flows in the runner and rise up in the riser (H).
• Thus all the slag goes to the portion of the riser.
• Because of the angle of ingates, the clean liquid metal enters the mold cavities and
produces sound castins.
Swirl gate
• In swirl gate, centrifugal forces assist in separating slag from liquid metal.
• Slag along with other lighter impurities is forced to the center of swirl from where
they move up the riser and thus help produce a casting free of slag and dross
Advantages of parting line gating
• Parting line gates are simple to construct.
• Parting line gates are very fast to make.
• Parting line gates produce very satisfactory results when drag is not very deep.
• Parting line gating makes best compromise between molding convenience and the
ideal gating arrangement.
• A parting line gate proves to be very advantageous when it can be fed directly into
the riser
• In this system the hottest metal reaches the rise with riser into risers, because no
additional gate is required to connect the mold cavity with riser.
Disadvantages of parting line gating
• In case the parting line is not near the bottom of the mold cavity or the drag portion is deep,
some turbulence will occur as the liquid metal falls into the mold cavity.
• Cascading of molten metal from a height in the mold cavity will cause erosion or washing of
the mold.
• Cascading in non-ferrous metals will promote dross and air pick up by the liquid metal and
thus results in an inferior casting.
• Turbulence created by cascading can be reduced by slowing down the rate of the molten
metal flow with the help of a choke
Multiple gate system
• gating systems discussed earlier(i.e. top, bottom and parting line gates) employing a single
sprue and one in gate may work satisfactorily with small castings but they are not suitable
for castings of large dimensions.
• This is because the portion of the mold adjacent to the point where molten metal enters
gets overheated and the HOTSPOT thus created may results in shrinkage.
• This problem is solved by employing a multiple gate system having a number of separate in
gates.
• Moreover, a multiple gate system can feed metal at widely separated points in a casting.
horizontally disposed system embodying finger gates.
• This arrangement is used for extend castings of plate form.
• Greater flow takes place through the in gates farthest from the down runner.
• The liquid metal flows along a straight path till it meets an obstruction, flows back and
enters other portion of the system.
• multiple finger ingate system designed to induce uniform flow.
• The uniformed flow is achieved by measures to induce back
pressure in the runners.
• another basic type of multiple in gate system is of step gating for
the introduction of liquid metal at progressively higher levels in
the mold cavity.
• step gates improve the adverse temperature distribution achieved
in bottom gating and at the same time enjoy the good features of
the same.
• metal enters the mold cavity through the bottom most ingate until
the mold is filled to the level of next higher ingate at this liquid
metal is expected to enter through the gate and similarly through
in gate no.1 as the metal level in the mold cavity further risers.
• Therefore unlike bottom gate, in step gate the top riser will always
contain hottest metal and thus promote directional solidification.
• consider the step gate ,a the mold cavity is filled the through
bottom most gate the upper ingates may even be subject to flow
in the reverse direction i.e they may even tend to empty the mold
cavity by the draining the liquid metal back into the sprue as the
liquid metal reaches at their level.
defects occurring due to improper design of gatig system
1. oxidation of metal 2. inclusion of slag, dross and other foreign matters.
3. cold shurts 4. mold erosion
5. rough surfaces 6. shrinkage
7. porosity 8. entrapped gases.
9. misruns. 10. penetration of liquid metal into mold walls.
turbulence in gating system
1. objectives like inclusion, coldshuts, mold erosion are related to the
manner in which the liquid metal enters the mold cavity.
2. molten metal may enter the mold cavity either in a streamlined
LAMINAR fashion or in a TURBULENT manner.
3. the liquid metal flow in gating systems is normally turbulent.
4. in turbulent flow the metal atoms travel from side to side as well as move
in the forward direction.
5. stream-line flow involves very small (liquid metal) velocities and a gating
system is impractical to design to achieve those velocities.
6.if turbulence is not excessive, it does not affect the casting quality.
7. gating design aims at reducing metal turbulence rather than eliminating i
8. the flow of fluids in ducts is related by their Reynold Number, Rn