david_palmer•29d agoTop Commenter

Got tired of chasing cold shuts on a certain bracket pattern

We run a lot of these small steel brackets, maybe a hundred a shift, and the cold shuts on the thin flange were killing our scrap rate. The foreman said to just pour hotter, but that made the core shift worse. Last Thursday, I tried something dumb and bumped the pouring basin gate size from 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch on that mold. The metal got in faster and filled the section before it could skin over. Scrap on that part dropped from about 15% to under 5% the next day. Has anyone else messed with gate size to fix a fill problem instead of just cranking the heat?

4 comments

4 Comments

ryanj1029d ago

Used to think gate size was just for controlling turbulence. Always reached for the pyrometer first when thin sections gave us trouble. Your post made me try something similar on a gear housing we cast. Upped the gate a little, kept the same pour temp, and the thin web filled out clean. Now I look at fill speed before I turn up the heat.

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mason_murray829d ago

Seriously? It's not like you cracked the code on cold fusion. Good for you ryanj10, but most of us just bump the heat a bit and call it a day. It's a gear housing, not a spaceship part. Sure, gate size can help fill speed, but acting like it's some huge revelation is a bit much. I'm glad it worked for your piece, but let's not pretend it's always that simple or that big of a deal.

hugob9629d ago

That gear housing story from ryanj10 is a solid real world check. Mason's right that it's not magic, but getting the fill speed right first saves a ton of headaches down the line. It's a basic step a lot of people skip for no good reason.

riverb1329d ago

Guess I was in the same boat as ryanj10...