Component Design-

Casting Considerations
 Pattern, Mould, and Parting line.
 Cored holes and machined holes.
 Identifying the possible and probable parting lines.
 Castings requiring special sand cores.
 Designing to obviate sand cores.

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INTRODUCTION

• The main aim is to achieve the economy in the design of casting

produced by the sand moulding procedure.

• The area of interest is sand cores.

• The design is modified to keep the need of sand cores to a

minimum or to eliminate.

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PATTERN

• Consider a cast iron pulley to be

produced from casting and machining
allover.
• The first operation is to make pattern;
o Wood or Metal pattern.
o Single or Multiple pattern.

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PATTERN

• Construction of the pattern must take account of

o The mould parting line.

o Machined surfaces.
o Shrinkage of the material.
o Draft (to facilitate extraction of the part)

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PATTERN

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 PATTERN

• The area between the pattern

and the casting size is the
allowance for the shrinkage.

• Allowance for machining.

• The angled sides – draft –

appear only on surfaces
normal to parting line.

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 MOULD

• The cope is located and

secured to the drag.
• Liquid metal is poured
into the mould cavity
through the runner.
• Gases and impurities
escape via the riser.

Fig: Elements of the two part mould.

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MOULD

• Draft on the pattern vertical sides will permit lifting the top box
and then lifting out the pattern without rubbing and disturbing
the moulded sand.
• After pouring, when the metal has set and cooled, the top box is
lifted and casting is taken which contains metal of the riser and
runner.
• These extra metals are then sandblasted and ready for
machining.

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PARTING LINE

• The dividing line between the two molding boxes that makes up the
mold.

• Considerations that are involved in deciding the parting line

o Length of pattern in relation to width/breadth.
o The size of boxes available at the time of casting.
o The pouring and venting points.

Note:
Decisions regarding these are taken by
foundry and pattern making experts.
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 PARTING LINE

• Consider cast iron bush shown in fig.

• Assume that machining allowance is

3 mm,
• Then,
o Casting length is 146 mm
o Outside diameter is 106 mm
o Hole diameter is 64 mm.

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 PARTING LINE

• The bush moulded in the vertical

position with the parting line central –
half in the top box and half in the
bottom box.
• The drafts are provided on the outside
diameter and the hole for easy lifting of
pattern without disturbing moulded
sand.
Fig: Bush moulded half in each box – double draft angle
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PARTING LINE

• The bush is moulded all in the

bottom box, the to box is merely
closes the mould and carries runner
and riser.

Fig: Bush moulded all in bottom box – single draft

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 PARTING LINE

• The bush is placed

horizontal and in order to
achieve the hole features,
a special sand core is
used.
• The sand core need to be
suitably located in the
mould and for this
purpose, extensions are
Fig: Bush moulded half in each box – to receive sand core
incorporated.
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 PARTING LINE

• Manufacture of special sand core

involves the use of a special
sand, moulding boxes and curing
to harden the core.
• Fig shows the cavity moulded by
the pattern with the sand core in
position, ready for pouring the
metal.

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PARTING LINE

• When the poured metal is set, the boxes are opened, the castings

extracted, and the sand core still in the casting is removed by

sandblasting or chipping.

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CAST HOLES & CORED HOLES

• Holes in castings are produced either by casting or by coring.

• Holes produced by the mould sand of the boxes are cast holes.
• Holes produced by use of a special sand core are cored holes.

Fig: Cored holes

Fig: Required hole in casting Fig: Cast holes

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MACHINED HOLES

• The holes in a casting component may be produced by drilling,

reaming or boring process.
• The choice of whether to use twist drill or boring tool is decided by
the size of the holes.

• Machined holes up to and including 30 mm diameter, to be drilled

• Holes over 30 mm diameter to be bored.

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 MACHINED HOLES

• Castings produced by the sand mould process are imprecise, holes which are
produced by this process can be out of position.
• If such hole are to be drilled, a misalignment between hole and drill could result
in drill breakage.
• Following rule is considered;

• Machining holes up to and including 30mm diameter to be cast solid.

• Machining hole over 30mm diameter to be cast/cored ( approx. 6 mm
for machining allowance)

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Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

• It is necessary for the designer to assess the mould parting line for
given component, in order to recognize where special sand cores
may be needed.

• A probable parting line is accepted as the one whereby the casting

is obtained without the need of sand cores or with minimum no. of
sand cores.

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 Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

• Possible parting lines for the lever

shown in fig are considered in
terms of the diameters of the two
holes.
• From the rules, the holes bosses
will be cast solid

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 Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

• The possible parting line is as shown

Fig: Parting line – center of the boss diameters

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Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

Fig: Parting line – center of the web thickness

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Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

Fig: Parting line – top face of the web

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Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

• Consider the lever

shown Fig

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Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

• Possible parting line for the lever shown in Fig. to obtain holes without the
need for the sand cores

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 Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

• Consider a housing
shown Fig

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 Identifying the Possible and Probable Parting Line

• Machined bore size is 35 mm

• Hole is cast hole.
• Parting line is shown in Fig.

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Castings Requiring Special Sand Cores

• Cores are used whenever there is an undercut, opening, or hollow area

in the casting that cannot be made by the mold.

• Sand cores can significantly increase the cost of casting process.

• The casting designer need to design casting component with no or

minimum sand cores.

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 Castings Requiring Special Sand Cores

• Consider a double flanged bush is

to be produced from a casting.
• A sand core is needed for each of
the two possible parting lines.

Fig: Double Flanged Bush

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Castings Requiring Special Sand Cores

• With a parting line shown in fig., a sand core is required for the hole.

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 Castings Requiring Special Sand Cores

• With a parting line shown in fig., an external

sand cores are required for the 65 mm body
diameter.
• The hole is “cast hole”.

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Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• If the moulded sand would be disturbed by either lifting of top box or

patterns, then a sand core is needed in the area of disturbance.
• Economy in casting process is achieved by suitable design modification,
the need for sand core can be removed.
• Any design modification should cause minimum possible alteration to
original design.
• The strength of the component must not be adversely affected.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• Fig shows a cast iron

connecting bracket.
• The preferred parting
line is the top face of
Fig (a)

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• Fig shows six

sand cores
are needed for
the casting

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Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• An acceptable design modification is to open the relief features in the end

faces in the directions of withdrawal of the pattern from the mould.
• The bosses on the inside faces are changed from a circular to a D-shape.
• The need of sand core is eliminated.
• The additional weight of the bosses is balanced by enlarged reliefs in the
side faces.

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Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• Re-design of cast iron connecting bracket

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• Consider an example
of iron pedestal is
required by the
foundry to have the
parting line on the
horizontal axis.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• This parting line involves

the use of sand cores for
the 50 mm diameter and
6 pockets between the
web.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

• By changing the four of the web to

the design shown in Fig., the
outside features can be cast.
• Only hole requires a sand core. Parting
line
• A reduction in sand cores is
achieved.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

PROBLEM

A cast iron bearing bracket is

shown in Fig. Indicate the
preferred parting line and any
necessary sand cores. Offer a
design modification that will
reduce or eliminate the sand
cores.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

SOLUTION
• With the parting line shown in Fig., the 60 mm diameter hole can be cast to
required allowance for machining by the mould sand.
• The relief in the base requires a sand core.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

SOLUTION

• By rotating the base relief feature 90°, this can also be

cast by the mould sand.
• The modified design is as follows

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

PROBLEM
Indicate the parting line for the
steel forked lever casting shown
in Fig and also the necessary
sand cores.
Maintaining as nearly as possible,
the existing weight of casting,
offer a design modification that
will eliminate or reduce sand core
requirements.
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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

SOLUTION

• The parting line for the forked lever is as shown

in Fig.
• Sand cores are required for three holes and two
external sand cores for the U–section arms.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

SOLUTION

• Changing the arms from U-section to

H-section, eliminates the need for the
external sand cores, maintaining the
strength of the casting with minimum
change in the weight.
• Sand cores are still required for the
holes.

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

PROBLEM

For the pedestal housing shown in

Fig, indicates the probable parting
line and any necessary sand cores,
accepting that the probable parting
line is the one involving the
minimum sand core.

Show a design modification to reduce or eliminate the need for sand cores; maintain
approximately the same weight of casting in the modified design.
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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

SOLUTION
Minimum number and size of sand cores for the pedestal housing is achieved by
using the parting line shown in Fig below

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 Designing to Obviate Sand Cores

SOLUTION
• The modified design
makes it possible to
use a parting line
transverse to the hole
axis and therefore to
cast the required
shape
• No sand cores
required.
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REFERENCES

• Peck, H. “Designing for Manufacture”, Pitman Publications,

London, 1983.

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