The information provided in this article is intended for those individuals who want to determine why a casting component failed to perform its intended purpose. It is also intended to provide insights for potential casting applications so that the likelihood of failure to perform the intended function is decreased. The article addresses factors that may cause failures in castings for each metal type, starting with gray iron and progressing to ductile iron, steel, aluminum, and copper-base alloys. It describes the general root causes of failure attributed to the casting material, production method, and/or design. The article also addresses conditions related to the casting process but not specific to any metal group, including misruns, pour shorts, broken cores, and foundry expertise. The discussion in each casting metal group includes factors concerning defects that can occur specific to the metal group and progress from melting to solidification, casting processing, and finally how the removal of the mold material can affect performance.

A 58.4 cm (23 in.) diam heavy-duty brake drum component of a cable-wound winch broke into two pieces during a shutdown period. Average service life of these drums was two weeks; none had failed by wear. The drums were sand cast from ductile iron. During haul-out, the cable on the cable drum drove the brake drum, and resistance was provided by brake bands applied to the outside surface of the brake drum. Friction during heavy service was sufficient to heat the brake drum, clutch mount, and disk to a red color. Examination of the assembly indicated that the brake drum would cool faster than its mounts and would contract onto them. Brittle fracture of the brake drum occurred as a result of thermal contraction of the drum web against the clutch mount and the disk. The ID of the drum web was enlarged sufficiently to allow for clearance between the web and the clutch mount and disk at a temperature differential of up to 555 deg C (1000 deg F). With the adoption of this procedure, brake drums failed by wear only.

A stuffing box (sand cast from ASTM A 536, grade 60-45-10, ductile iron) began leaking water after two weeks of service. The machine was operating at 326 rpm with a discharge water pressure of 21.4 MPa (3100 psi). Investigation (visual inspection, mechanical analysis, and nital etched 100x magnification) supported the conclusion that the crack initiated at the inner edge of a lubrication hole and had propagated toward both the threaded and flange ends of the casting. An appreciable residual-stress concentration must have been present and caused propagation of the crack. The residual stress might have been caused when a fitting was tightly screwed into the lubrication hole, and it might have been concentrated by notches at the inner end of the hole created when the drill broke through the sidewall to the stuffing box.

A roadarm for a tracked vehicle failed during preproduction vehicle testing. The arm was a weldment of two cored low-alloy steel sand castings specified to ASTM A 148, grade 120–95. A maximum carbon content of 0.32% was specified. The welding procedure called for degreasing and gas metal arc welding; neither preheating nor postheating was specified. The filler metal was E70S-6 continuous consumable wire with a copper coating to protect it from atmospheric oxidation while on the reel. Analysis of the two castings revealed that the carbon content was higher than specified, ranging from 0.40 to 0.44%. The fracture occurred in the HAZ , where quenching by the surrounding metal had produced a hardness of 55 HRC. Some roadarms of similar carbon content and welded by the same procedure had not failed because they had been tempered during a hot-straightening operation. Brittle fracture of the roadarm was caused by a combination of too high a carbon equivalent in the castings and the lack of preheating and postheating during the welding procedure. A pre-heat and tempering after welding were added to the welding procedure.

A sand-cast gray iron flanged nut was used to adjust the upper roll on a 3.05 m (10 ft) pyramid-type plate-bending machine. The flange broke away from the body of the nut during service. Analysis (visual inspection and 150x micrographs of sections etched with nital) supported the conclusions that brittle fracture of the flange from the body was the result of overload caused by misalignment between the flange and the roll holder. The microstructure contained graphite flakes of excessive size and inclusions in critical areas; however, these metallurgical imperfections did not appear to have had significant effects on the fracture. Recommendations included carefully and properly aligning the flange surface with the roll holder to achieve uniform distribution of the load. Also, a more ductile metal, such as steel or ductile iron, would be more suitable for this application and would require less exact alignment.

A full lift disk, made of die cast brass, which served as a lifting aid in a safety valve, had cracked in service at a number of locations in the vicinity of the threaded hole. During microscopic examination, agglomeration of oxide inclusions were noted in the region of the cracks. Because the die cast brass was alloyed with aluminum, these inclusions consisted predominantly of aluminum oxide. The tolerable limit in pores and oxide inclusions was greatly exceeded in the lift disk under examination. Above all, the numerous oxide skins disrupted the cohesion of the microstructure and were primarily responsible for the failure of the lift disk.

Lakes in zinc die castings are areas encompassed by irregular lines or waves on flat or slightly contoured surfaces which are intended to look uniform. The laked areas have to be removed by polishing before the castings can be plated. This adds considerably to the overall cost of production. Castings examined were of an automobile name-plate holder with two flat sides of approximately 113 sq cm. All castings produced during a trial showed laking defects, the number and position varying from casting to casting. It was found that formation of metal waves and lakes depended primarily on the design of the gate and runner system and operating conditions. High flow efficiencies, with adequate feeding to all sections of the die, and short cavity fill times are desirable.

In a steel foundry, tensile and bend specimens of castings made in a 2-ton basic arc furnace showed, at irregular intervals, regions with coarse-grained fractures where the specimens broke prematurely, so that the specified strength and toughness values could not be reached. Several cast tensile specimens and some forcibly-broken pieces of the flanges of armature yokes made of cast steel GS C 25 according to DIN 17 245 were investigated. Microscopic examination showed that the cause of damage was the superabundant use of aluminum as deoxidizer. According to recommendations, the aluminum addition was reduced by one-half. Since then, there have been no additional rejects due to insufficient tensile and bend values.

In the EMD-2 Joint Directed Attack Munition (JDAM), the A357 aluminum alloy housing had been redesigned and cast via permanent mold casting, but did not meet the design strength requirements of the previous design. Mechanical tests on thick and thin sections of the forward housing assembly revealed tensile properties well below the allowable design values. Radiology and CT evaluations revealed no casting defects. Optical microscopy revealed porosity uniformly distributed throughout the casting on the order of 0.1 mm pore diam. Scanning electron microscopy revealed elongated pores, which indicated turbulent filling of the mold. Spherical pores would have indicated the melt had been improperly degassed. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the manufacturer analyze and redesign the gating system to eliminate the turbulent flow problem during the permanent mold casting process.

A new supplier for aluminum die castings was being evaluated, and the castings failed to meet the durability test requirements. Specifically, the fatigue life of the castings was low. Initial inspection of the fatigue fracture surfaces revealed large-scale porosity visible to the naked eye. New castings with reduced porosity also failed the durability tests. The fatigue fracture surfaces of additional casting fragments were very rough and contained multiple ratchet marks along the inner fillet. These observations indicated the fatigue process was heavily influenced by the presence of surface imperfections. Improving the surface finish or choosing a stronger alloy, were more likely to improve part durability than reducing the porosity.

Near-surface porosity in zinc die castings that were subsequently plated with copper, nickel, and bright chromium was causing blemishes in the plating. Identifying die casting turbulence and hot spots were keys to process modifications that subsequently allowed porosity to be greatly minimized.

Cluster bomb tailcone assemblies each containing two aluminum die-cast components were rejected because of the poor surface condition of the die castings. Numerous heat checks were found on the surfaces of the tailcones and radiographic inspection revealed inclusions, gas holes, and shrinkage defects in the castings. Most of the components failed to meet required mechanical properties because of these casting defects.

A crack was discovered in a cast steel (ASTM A 356, grade 6) steam turbine casing during normal overhaul of the turbine. The mechanical properties of the casting all exceeded the requirements of the specification. When the fracture surface was examined visually, an internal-porosity defect was observed adjoining a tapped hole. A second, much larger cavity was also detected. Investigation (visual inspection and 7500x SEM fractographs) supported the conclusions that failure occurred through a zone of structural weakness that was caused by internal casting defects and a tapped hole. The combination of cyclic loading (thermal fatigue), an aggressive service environment (steam), and internal defects resulted in gradual crack propagation, which was, at times, intergranular-with or without corrosive attack-and, at other times, was transgranular.

A die-cast zinc adapter used in a snowthrower failed catastrophically in a brittle overload manner. The component had a chemical composition similar to standard zinc alloy ZA-27 (UNS Z35840), although the iron content was much higher and the copper slightly lower. The mechanical properties and alloy designation were not specified. Investigation (visual inspection, 187x SEM images, unetched 30x images, hardness testing, and chemical analysis) of both the failed adapter and an exemplar casting from known-good lot supported the conclusion that the casting failed as a result of brittle overload fracture due to excessive iron-zinc phase and gross porosity. These conditions acted synergistically to reduce the strength of the material. The composition was nonstandard, and the inherent brittleness suggested that it was unlikely that this material was an intentional proprietary alloy. No recommendations were made.

The specially designed sand-cast low-alloy steel jaws that were implemented to stretch the wire used in prestressed concrete beams fractured. The fractures were found to be macroscale brittle and exhibited very little evidence of deformation. The surface of the jaws was disclosed by metallographic examination to be case carburized. The case was found to be martensite with small spheroidal carbides while the core consisted of martensite plus some ferrite. The fracture was revealed to be related to shrinkage porosity. Tempering was revealed to be probably limited to about 150 deg C by the hardness values (close to the maximum hardness values attainable) for the core. It was interpreted that the low tempering temperature used may have contributed to the brittleness. The procedures used for casting the jaws were recommended to be revised to eliminate the internal shrinkage porosity. Tempering at a slightly higher temperature to reduce surface and core hardness was recommended.

Small paddles used to mix pulp had experienced a high incidence of breakage through the shafts. In some of the shanks, shrinkage was found relatively close to the surface where threads had been cut all the length of the shaft. Chemistries were within normal CF-8M ranges. Metallography showed the parts to be correctly heat treated. Cross sections of several of the parts showed pitting corrosion, and beneath the pits, stress-corrosion cracks in areas where the shafts had been bent during use. All the samples showed deep SCC in the areas where bending had occurred. In several cases, centerline shrinkage from inadequate risering had decreased life by reducing the cross-sectional area. Type CF-8M is not resistant to chloride SCC where the chloride concentration is considerable. The biggest problem was the bending of these parts. Deformed material with high residual stresses would always be susceptible to SCC. Redesign to lower stresses was essential. In addition, change to a high-strength duplex stainless steel with its higher strength and greater resistance to chlorides was recommended. Finally, the part must be adequately risered to produce solid shanks free from shrinkage.

Following a freight train derailment, part of a fractured side frame was retained for study because a portion of its fracture surface exhibited a rock candy appearance and black scale. It was suspected of having failed, thereby precipitating the derailment. Metallography, scanning electron microscopy, EDXA, and x-ray mapping were used to study the steel in the vicinity of this part of the fracture surface. It was found to be contaminated with copper. Debye-Scherrer x-ray diffraction patterns obtained from the scale showed that it consisted of magnetite and hematite. It was concluded that some copper was accidentally left in the mold when the casting was poured. Liquid copper, carrying with it oxygen in solution, penetrated the austenite grain boundaries as the steel cooled. The oxygen reacted with the steel producing a network of scale outlining the austenite grain structure. When the casting fractured as a result of the derailment, the fracture followed the scale in the contaminated region thus creating the “rock candy” fracture.

A sand-cast steel eye connector used to link together two 54,430 kg capacity floating-bridge pontoons failed prematurely in service. The pontoons were coupled by upper and lower eye and clevis connectors that were pinned together. The eye connector was found to be cast from low-alloy steel conforming to ASTM A 148, grade 150-125. The crack was found to have originated along the lower surface initially penetrating a region of shrinkage porosity. It was observed that cracking then propagated in tension through sound metal and terminated in a shear lip at the top of the eye. The fracture of the eye connector was concluded to have occurred by tensile overload because of shrinkage porosity. Sound metal was ensured by radiographic examination of subsequent castings.

A forged 4130 steel cylindrical permanent mold, used for centrifugal casting of gray- and ductile-iron pipe, was examined after pulling of the pipe became increasingly difficult. In operation, the mold rotated at a predetermined speed in a centrifugal casting machine while the molten metal, flowing through a trough, was poured into the mold beginning at the bell end and ending with the spigot end being poured last. After the pipe had cooled, it was pulled out from the bell end of the mold, and the procedure was repeated. Investigation supported the conclusion that failure of the mold surface was the result of localized overheating caused by splashing of molten metal on the bore surface near the spigot end. In addition, the mold-wash compound (a bentonite mixture) near the spigot end was too thin to provide the proper degree of insulation and to prevent molten metal from sticking to the bore surface. Recommendations included reducing the pouring temperatures of the molten metal and spraying a thicker insulating coating onto the mold surface.

A sand-cast medium-carbon steel heavy-duty axle housing, which had been quenched and tempered to about 30 HRC, fractured after almost 5000 h of service. Investigation (0.4x magnification) revealed that the fracture had been initiated by a hot tear that formed during solidification of the casting. The mass of a feeder-riser system located near the tear retarded cooling in this region, creating a hot spot. This supported the conclusion that the tear causing the fracture of the axle housing was formed during solidification by hindered contraction and was enlarged in service by fatigue. Recommendations were to change the feeder location to eliminate the hot spot and thus the occurrence of hot tearing.