Solutions for:
Defect Diagnosis
A casting defect is any characteristic which is not acceptable to the customer.
Defect diagnosis is the procedure of identifying the type of defect and understanding its underlying cause.
Some casting defects can be easily identified by production and technical staff in the plant. Indeed, they do this on a day to day basis.
But some defects are very difficult to diagnose. There may be more than one contributing cause. There may be more than one type of defect present in the same casting.
Defects fall into two main groups: External defects and Internal defects. In each of these there are a number of common sub-groups which classify the broad nature of the defect.
There are a number of techniques which can be used to correctly identify the defect and its cause, including cutting and sectioning the casting, polishing, examination under magnification, application of heat, chemical markers, x-ray, ultrasound and others.
If you need help with defect diagnosis, our engineers can help.
Send us an email and a photo of the defect in the casting. Our engineers will advise what steps will be needed to get to the root cause and ways to eliminate the problem.
External Defects
These defects can be seen on the surface or the edges of the casting. Use a microscope to see the fine details.
Category | Defect Name | |
---|---|---|
Gas Related | Blisters | |
Exploded Blisters | ||
Collapsed Blisters | ||
Shrinkage Related | Sinks | |
Filling Related | Cold Flow | |
Short Fill | ||
Joints | ||
Laminations | ||
Inclusions | Flakes | |
Die Lube Marks | ||
Surface Deposits | ||
Gate Breakout | ||
Thermal-Mechanical | Cracks | |
Hot Tearing | ||
Die Related | Soldering | |
Heat Checking | ||
Die Erosion | ||
Ejection Marks | ||
Scoring & Drag Marks | ||
Corrosion of die | ||
Excess Material | Flash | |
Out of Tolerance | Warpage & Deformation |
Internal Defects
To see these defects, the casting must be broken open or dissected and polished, then magnified, or X-rayed.
Category | Defect Name | |
---|---|---|
Gas Related | Gas Porosity | |
Lubricant Entrapment | ||
Hydrogen Porosity | ||
Shrinkage Related | Shrinkage Porosity | |
Leakers | ||
Interdendritic Shrinkage | ||
Layer Porosity | ||
Filling Related | Cold Flow | |
Laminations | ||
Joints | ||
Inclusions | Flakes | |
Contamination | ||
Gate Breakout | ||
Thermal-Mechanical | Cracks | |
Hot Tearing |