On the Feeding of Cast Aluminium Alloys

Abstract

  There were not a few papers published on the feeder of the casting, but they mostly concerned with the determination of a feeder shape and volume in relation to the volume ratio of casting vs feeder, the heat diffusivity of feeder surface, the measurement of the effective range of the feeder and the application of chill. Recently, W. Patterson densted that the feeding of the mushy metal might be different according to the mode of solidification of an alloy.
  In the present paper, the observations of shrinkage cavity and the mode of solidification were carried out by pouring Al, Al-Cu and Al-Si alloys into the mould and the pour out method. The ability of feeding what is called “feeding capacity”, was measured at the coexistent state of solid and liquid, and the relations between the feeding capacity and the mode of solidification were investigated and discussed, and also they were referred to the density which was measured. The result obtained were as follows :
  (1) It is possible to classify the mode of solidification by the results of the pour out method, the investigations of microstructure and shrinkage cavity.
  (2) The effect of feeding could be estimated by the feeding capacity to a certain degree though not entirely.
  (3) The effect of the mode of solidification to the feeding would also be considered from the results of the density measurement.