Certain investigation on feasibility of developing riser less ductile iron castings

The solidification mechanism of ductile iron is a bit complex due to the precipitation of graphite and silicon. These elements change the solidification pattern of cast iron. Density of these elements is less than iron leads to occupying more volume consequently increase the overall metal volume. There are two aspects on this increase in metal volume. One is, reducing this volume increase to reduce the creation of porosities at the earlier stage of solidification and second is, using this volume increase to remove porosity at the later stage of solidification. Proper understanding of this graphite expansion in cast iron solidification will bring insights on reducing or removing of the risers. The current study focus on correlating the net contraction and austenitic liquidus point with shrinkage. The average contraction found through this study is 1.36 % which is more than the net expansion of 0.25 % (without riser) reported in literature. The study found that properly balancing graphite precipitation, pouring temperature and mold strength can enable riserless casting of ductile iron by compensating for liquid contraction through graphite expansion.