Designing for Castability

A Design Study in Steel Castings -- Pintle Socket

Designing for Castability

Cooperative Engineering -- The foundry engineer and the equipment design engineer have to establish communication and a cooperative relationship in developing a design that has the optimum performance and value.

It is good practice to review the original design to ensure that it takes advantage of the benefits of the foundry process and avoids the design features that produce problems in metalcasting.

Atchison Casting received engineering drawings which showed the final form, fit and function for the pintle socket. The foundry engineers and the design engineers converted these drawings to “casting” drawings which included --

-> Fillets, radii, and fill at corners, joints, and gaps for control of mold configuration, metal flow, and strength improvement.
-> Added metal stock for machined surfaces.
-> Draft (for mold release) and taper (for directional solidification) on critical features. -> Feed stock risers to provide molten metal fill into solidification shrinkage.

Return to SFSA Home Page		Copyright 2001 by the Steel Founders' Society of America All rights reserved. Address comments to: blairr@sfsa.org Last Modified:September, 2001 by STG	Page 1	In Cooperation with Atchison Casting