International Engineering Research Journal Page No 1069-1075

Analysis and Optimization of Gating System for TVS

SATELITE
Ms. B. S. Shingate*
Dr. S. V. Patil**
Mr. A. A. Bailkar***

*P. G. Student, Mechanical Engineering Department, STES’s RMD Sinhgad School of Engineering, Pune
**Project Guide, Mechanical Engineering Department, STES’s RMD Sinhgad School of Engineering, Pune
***Industrial Project Guide, Mutha Engineering Pvt Ltd, Unit No. III, Satara.
*bhagyashri.shingate@gmail.com
**sanjaysingh.patil@sinhgad.edu
***mailme_arunbailkar@gmail.com

Abstract-Defect free Casting is the main aim for foundry industry. system is very important to provide metal in liquid form to the
To achieve this; foundry does number of shop trials to eliminate casting cavity. The defects like shrinkage, porosity can be
defect.This takes lot of time to design proper system. For better minimized by designing proper feeding system [1].The location
casting; gating system plays an important role. Casting simulation
software’s have eased the designing of proper gating system. In this and extent of shrinkage porosity can be predicted by identifying
work AUTOCAS T X software has been used which is an easy to use regions of high temperature (hot spots) and low gradients [2].
program, based on vector element method for simulation to predict These defects also can be minimized by an intelligent methoding
shrinkages and gas porosity easily. A well-designed runner and and simulation casting software [4]. Casting defect analysis is the
gating system is very important to produce good quality die castings process of finding the root cause of occurrence of defects in the
by providing a homogenous mould filling pattern. Flow analysis of rejection of casting and taking necessary steps to reduce the
the component is done in order to visibly analyze the cavity filling defects [5]. The gating system should be designed properly
process. In this study, a TVS S ATELITE, product was chosen.The
objective of this work is to represent TVS S ATELITE casting design because oversized gating system leads to lower yield of the
and its simulation using AUTOCAS T-X software. Initially when the casting. The various gating system are designed for the casting
component was casted numerous defects such as Col d shuts, Misrun, and 3D CAD models of this designs are made and simulated
S hrinkage porosity and Gas porosity were found. This in turn led to using AUTOCAST-X flow plus [6].
rejection of number of components. In order to improve the quality In casting process, gating system plays an important role to
of the castings produced, the gating system design was changed from produce a high quality casting. A poorly designed gating system
the existing gate to modified gate. The component was designed
using AUTOCAS T S oftware. The process parameters like metal
results in casting defects. A gating system controls mould filling
temperature, fill velocity and filling time are considered for process. The main function of gating system is to lead clean
optimizing the process. molten metal from ladle to the casting cavity ensuring smooth,
uniform and complete filling. Hence to design a good gating
Keywords : TVS S ATELITE, AUTOCAS T S oftware, S hrinkage. system one must know the behavior of fluid flow during mould
filling process. Mould filling is a complex phenomenon,
influencing both internal and external quality. The flow of molten
I. INTRODUCTION metal after being poured is a transient phenomena accompanied
by turbulence, separation of the flow from the boundaries,
In automobile industries many parts used are of different shapes dividing and combined flow at the junction, simultaneous heat
and they are difficult to manufacture so the casting process is transfer during the flow and onset of solidification. Moreover
always used in the manufacturing of the automobile products. melt properties like density, viscosity and surface tension are
Casting is a very versatile process and capable of being used in continuously changing during the flow. All this together makes
mass production. Foundry is mother industry. In casting process the filling analysis quite complex. Mainly arising defects in
lots of research has been carried out in foundry technology, but casting are shrinkage porosity, hot spots, etc. Then by using
yet trial and error method used for designing the gating system, it casting simulation software these defects can be minimized.
is time consuming and costly process, so the material utilization, Hence casting solidification simulation enables preventing
energy utilization, and other resources utilization is very difficult potential problems before solidification of product. The objective
in foundry industries[7]. Many critical shapes are manufactured of this work is carried out simulation of casting under software to
in foundry by casting process, because of critical shapes present minimize the above motioned defects .
many defects arise in casting while directional solidification.
Even in a completely controlled process, defects are found out. So NOMENCLATURE
for the good directional solidification proper designing of gating G:Liquid metal per mould (kg)
T:Pouring time (sec) Metals shrink as they solidify; if this shrinkage is not
ξ:Velocity Factor compensated by providing risers, etc., voids will occur on the
hst:Ferrostatic Head (cm) surface i.e. surface shrinkage or inside i.e. internal shrinkage the
σ:Density of liquid metal (kg / cm3) casting. The shrinkage defect is caused due by molding, core
hsp:Height of sprue above ingate (cm) making, gating, etc.
b:Height of casting above ingate (cm)
c:Total height of casting(cm)

At initial stage we design a gating system for the object TVS

satelite and simulation solidification has been carried out for the
same. The obtained simulation result shows casting with some
defects. Hence there is a need to redesign the gating in order to
remove defects from the casting.

1.1 Casting Defects in the Existing Model Fig.1.3 Major Shrinkage Fig.1.4 Minor Shrinkage

Flow Mark
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Flow mark is the occurrence of visible metal flow marks on the
casting surface. It can be removed by proper polishing of the Following literature review is carried out for the basic study
mould cavity. The main causes for this defect is Non parallelism regarding gating system design before doing actual gating design
between platens of die, less draft provided and worn out Tie bar for a product TVS SATELITE.
guide bushes [3]
C. M. Choudhari , B. E. Narkhede, S. K. Mahajan, In this study,
they showingcomponenthaving shrinkage porosity defect leading
to failure. Also due to sudden variation in thickness it was
subjected to incomplete filling. Then they redesign and redevelop
the component by providing sufficient draft and radius at the
junction of Component geometry. Their work has been made to
carry out the entire methoding, simulation and optimization in
AutoCAST X software which is based on Vector Gradient
Method (VGM). Then it is observed thatentire shrinkage porosity
should get shifted in the feeder by setting all the design
parameters in numerical simulation software. This gives
significant improvement in the quality of casting . When they
Fig 1.1.Flow Mark compared their workwith the experimental trial simulation, the
results were found in good agreement. [1]
Blow Holes
Dr. B. Ravi,His study gives “Computer-aided Casting Design and
Blowholes are smooth, round holes. Blow-holes are produced
Simulation Computer-aided casting”. His Design and simulation
because of gas entrapped in the metal during the course of
gives a much better and faster insight for optimizing the feeder
solidification. The main causes for this defect is low velocity and
and gating design of castings. The Key inputs, steps and results
pressure and excess machining stock and bad Chill vent design.
are discussed in his work. Casting simulation however, poses
And Excess moisture in the molding sand.
several challenges: technical as well as non-technical (resources)
for industrial users. Hehighlights the best practices based on his
Gas Porosity
experience with several casting simulation projects, and
directions for further research in this area to make casting
Gas porosity is the formation of bubbles within the casting after it
simulation more easy, accessible and economical for industrial
has cooled which shown in figure 1.2. The main causes for this
users. And he conclude that the bottlenecks and non-value added
defect is low velocity and pressure of molten metal, excess
time in casting development can be minimized by adopting CAD,
machining stock and bad Chill and vent design [3]
intelligent methoding and simulation technologies. These have
been developed, successfully demonstrated on industrial castings,
and now being used in several organizations. Several innovative
algorithms, including VEM, geometric reasoning, and automatic
solid modeling dramatically compressed the iteration time for
methoding modification and simulation to less than one hour for
even complex castings. Further, the simple and logical user
Fig.1.2 Gas Porosity interface greatly improved the learning curve for engineers, to
Shrinkage just a few hours. As a result, even small foundries with little or no
previous exposure to CAD/CAM software are able to effectively
use the program to improve their casting quality, yield and Utkarsh S. Khadeand Suresh M. Sawan, In this paper they
productivity. It has also proven to be very useful for verifying the analyzed and studied casting of brake disc. This work has been
manufacturability of a casting and improving it by minor made to solve the problem of lower casting yield due to over
modifications to part geometry, before freezing the design.[2] designed gating system components. To overcome this problem
they redesigned gating system which is based on gating rules,
B. VijayaRamnatha, C.Elanchezhiana, Vishal Chandrasekhar, A. gating design procedure, theoretical knowledge, casting
Arun Kumar, S. Mohamed Asif, G. Riyaz Mohamed, D. simulation and practical considerations. Theymade various 3D
VinodhRaj ,C .Suresh Kumar, In this study, a Commutator End CAD models of that designs and designed gating systems for the
(CE) bracket, a cold chamber die casted product was chosen. casting and simulated using simulation program Autocast-X flow
Initially when the component was casted they analyzed various plus. After analyzing the simulation results, they get results which
defects such as Cold shuts, Misrun, Shrinkage porosity and Gas are not agreed, then they made changes in that design and 3D
porosity. The results of their design give rejection of number of CAD model and simulated again, theyrepeated thatprocedure
components. Then they changed the gating system from the until the desired results are obtained so as it will give the sound
existing flat gate to modified spoon fed gate in order to improve quality casting with the higher casting yield, profit and
the quality of the castings produced. They designed component productivity.[6].
using Pro- Engineer and flow analysis was carried out using
Rotork Flow 3D Software. They consider process parameters like Swaroop S. Magdum, Baliram R. Jadhav, In this work they shows
metal temperature; fill velocity and filling time for optimizing the the development of the casting processes simulation techniques
process. Quality assessment for the die casting parts was made by used in the AutoCAST simulation software. In the simulation
microstructure analysis. [3]. technique they designed gating systemnumerically and by that
dimensions theydrawn 3D model of the gating and cavity, that
C. M. Choudhari, B. E. Narkhede, S. K. Mahajan, Inthis paper, model is used for virtual casting in that process by that simulation
theyredesign and develop a casting free from defects, in technique trial and error method, the optimized gating system was
particular, shrinkage defect. Theytakencomponent for simulation finalized. After that they implementedfinalized designed gating
study was subjected to shrinkage defects. And which was the system on the pattern for simulation process and taken the sample
major cause for the rejection in the foundry. The component casting to validate the result of the simulation technique. So they
under their study consists of square shaped (at top) plate having overcome wastage caused due to trail and error by using this
three perforations with diminishing height (at bottom) and technique and optimization of quality implies lower production
subjected to multiple hot spot. When they carried out various cost and higher yield.[7]
simulation trialsoptimum location of feeder has been identified.
Proper feeding has helped in shifting the hot spot completely M. Di Foggiaa, D.M. D’Addona, This paper is focused on the
inside the feeder. And hence improvement of the feedability description of investment casting process and its key parameters
index which represents yield of feeders and quality of casting. in order to give a quite detailed knowledge of the main indicators
Then they compare simulationresults with the experimental trial of this manufacture method, for its nature prone to have high
and the comparison was found to be correct.[4] costs of rework or scrap. It provides a brief description of
EuropeaMicrofusioniAerospaziali and a simple, schematic flow
Uday A. Dabade and Rahul C. Bhedasgaonkar, In this paper they of the main processes; afterwards the main processes are
combined design of experiments and computer assisted casting discussed in more detailed manner with their manufacturing
simulation techniques. That combination was made to analyze the methods and product specifications. These are indispensable
sand related defects in green sand casting. They selected ductile preconditions to introduce the discussion on the critical
iron cast component and an attempt has been made to obtain the parameters for investment casting process. [8]
optimal settings of the molding sand and mould related process
parameters of green sand casting process . They considered green Literature study helps in designing the proper gating system. All
sand related process parameters like moisture content, the papers give information related to gating design and various
compression strength, and permeability of molding sand and trends and innovations in foundry industry.
mould hardness. In first part of this paper Taguchi based L18
orthogonal array was used for the experimental purpose and
analysis was carried out using Minitab software for analysis of III. DESIGN OF GATING SYSTEM
variance (ANOVA) and analysis of mean (AOM) plot. ANOVA
results indicate that the selected process parameters significantly Gating system
affect the casting defects and rejection percentage. Then in the
second part, they performed shrinkage porosity analysis using The gate is the most restrictive orifice in the total fluid flow
casting simulation technique by introduction of a new gating concept of the filling operation in the die-casting die. It is the
system designed, solid model developed for four cavities mould. point at which the metal enters into the die cavity. There exists a
Then they take number of iterations using casting s imulation geometrical & mathematical relationship for the dimensioning of
software for mould filling and solidification analysis to reduce the the gating of die casting dies. Most of the casting defects such as
level and intensities of shrinkage porosities in cast component. bad surface, improper filling, flow marks, cold shuts, soldering
The result shows reduction in shrinkage porosity (about 15%) and and thermal imbalance are caused due to improper gating. The
improvement in yield (about 5%) with new gating and feeding location, size, and type of gate are 3 important factors in gating .
system design. [5]
Runner Design
 4) Ferrostatic Head hst = hsp -
Runners should be shaped in such a way to minimize the surface
area to volume ratio. Various types of runner are shown in figure Where,
3.1 hsp = height of sprue above ingate = 17.78cm
b = height of casting above ingate = 7.30 cm
c = Total height of casting = 7.30 cm
hst = 17.78 –
=14.13cm
5) Density of liquid metal (σ) = 6.8 kg / cm3
6) Total ingate area =
=
σ ξ
= 80.712 cm2
Fig.3.1 Runner profiles (a)fully round (b)trapezoidal (c)modified
Down sprue area = 807.12 mm2
trapezoidal (d) hexagon
Taking Gating Ratio = 1:1.2:2 we get,
The criterion of efficient runner design is that the runner should
807.12:968.54:1614.24
provide a maximum cross sectional area from the standpoint of
pressure transfer and a minimum contact on the periphery from
Down sprue area = 807.12 mm2
heat transfer.
Runner Area = 968.54 mm2
Ingate Area = 1614.24 mm2
Existing Gating System
(Gate Velocity must be 40.50m/s)
7) Length of the gate
It is the initial design of gating in which casting defect like
Gate length = Gate Area/ Gate thickness = 1614.24/4.5
shrinkage has been accrued in the top of riser provided. It is a
= 358.72mm
type of gating where the metal flows perpendicularly to the side
Thumb rule is that if Gate Area is equal to ¼ of the component
walls of the casting. In this type, when the metal flows into the
mass then we will get a good filled casting.
cavity it is directly met with an obstruction thereby reducing the
Component Mass = 1200 gm
flow velocity and causing turbulent flow into the cavity.
Therefore minimum gate area required = 1200/ 4 = 300 mm2

Riser Calculations:-

Casting Weight = 14.4 kg

1) Feed metal requirement = 0.04 × weight of casting
= 0.576 kg
2) Form table of Height : diameter Ratio
Top Diameter of Riser = 30 mm
Feed Metal (gm) = 576 gm
H:D Ratio = 5:1
3) Riser Diameter = 4 × M s + Riser Top Diameter
= 50 mm
4) Riser Height = H:D Ratio × Riser Top Diameter
Fig.3.2Existing gating system = 150 mm

Design Calculations Modified Gating Design:-

Casting: TVS SATELITE Here upto step no 3 calculations are same then by changing
Weight of casting = 1.20 kg / pc hsp = height of sprue above ingate = 12.70 cm
No. of castings / mould = 12 Nos Then,
Total weight of casting = 1.2 × 12 = 14.40 kg hst = 12.70 –
= 9.05 cm
Gating Design:- 1) Total ingate area =
1) Liquid metal per mould (G) = 1.5 × Total casting weight =
σ ξ
= 1.5 × 14.4 = 10085.2cm2
= 21.60 kg Down sprue area = 1008.52 mm2
2) Pouring time (t) = 0.9 × √2 × G Taking Gating Ratio = 1:1:2 we get,
= 0.9 × √ 2 × 21.6
= 5.92 Sec Say 6 Sec. 1008.52:1008.52:2017.04

3) Velocity Factor (ξ) = 0.40 assumed Down sprue area = 1008.52 mm2
 Runner Area = 1008.52 mm2 casting. There are XII numbers of cavities present in the mold
Ingate Area = 2017.04 mm2 box. And hence gating is designed in such a way to fill all mold
(Gate Velocity must be 40.50m/s) cavities continuously without any delay in the filling.
2) Length of the gate
Gate length = Gate Area/ Gate thickness = 2017.04 /4.5 The result filling of molten metal in all the cavities in shown as..
= 448.23mm
3) Area of the runner
Runner area = 2×gate area = 2 × 2017.04
= 4034.08 mm2
4) Width of the runner
Runner width = √ (2× runner area) = √ (2 ×4034.08)
= 89.82mm
5) Depth of the runner
Runner depth = Runner width/2 = 89.82/2 Fig.(a) 5% of Filling Fig.(b) 50% of Filling
= 44.91mm
By using this modified design we can totally minimize the defects
occurred while using existing design. Hence the casting produced
will be defect free. And quality of production is maintained and
production should be increased.

Fig.(c) 99% of Filling

Fig.4.2. % of filling in cavities

The results of filling of molten metal in the all the cavities shows
that the filling is continues in all the cavities while no any
turbulence in the flow. This gives defect free casting after
Fig.3.3.Modified gating system solidification.
In the initial gating design the hot spots has been occurred in the
top of feeder. Which gives the casting with defect like shrinkage
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION as explained in the problem definition.

The main initial step of this software is to create 2D model of

object in design software and save it in standard .stl file and
import it in AUTOCAST X.

Fig.4.3. Hotspot region in existing gating design

This results in wastage of material also it becomes time

consuming. Then we decided to remove that hot spot region by
doing modification in existing gating design.
We do changes in the ingate area and feeder. We replace existing
Fig.4.1. Modified gating with mold box rectangular cross section of ingate with the ingate with draft at
both sides. While taking simulation trail we can observe that there
As per the foundry requirement thefig shows mould box of is no any shrinkage in casting after complete solidification and
dimensions 388 mm X 540 mm X 274.2 mm. Green sand has removing the feeder doesn’t matter on the quality of casting.The
been used as a mold material. The casting process used is sand changes made in the design are removal of feeder and change in
cross section of ingate i.e. area increased from1614.24 mm2 to
2017.04 mm2 . The liquid fraction and air fraction gives the result of occurrence
ofblow holes in the casting simulated. All results done with
modified design are okay.
The final solidification results also shows defect free and sound
casting

Fig.4.4. Modified design with no shrinkage porosity Fig.(a) 5% of Solidification Fig.(b) 50% of Solidification

The results of liquid fraction and air fraction are shown in

following fig. Ranging from high to low value

Fig.(a)97.87% of Liquid Fraction Fig(b).50% of Liquid fraction

Fig.(c) 99% of Solidification

Fig.4.7. Solidification

V.CONCLUSION

The paper dealt with simulation and design of gating system due
to which various casting defects are reduced and that was our
Fig.(c) 0.95% of liquid fraction objective. Initially component TVS Satelite was selected. When
component was tested shrinkage defects was analyzed. This was
due to improper gating system. It led to uneven and turbulent
Fig.4.5 % of Liquid Fraction
filling in the die cavities. And this results in reduction in quality
and increase in rejection rates. A new gating was designed and by
replacing initial gating with modified gating the molten metal
flows into the die cavity with uniform filling and within less time.
Hence it results in less time working with minimizing all casting
defects with increase in production without any loss of material,
machine and man power. The proposed yield in existing design of
gating system is around 45%. And with modified gating system
yield becomes 60 to 70%.
Fig.(a)99% of Air Fraction Fig.(b)50% of Air Fraction VI. FUTURE SCOPE
In the company that TVS Satelite is in continues production. We
an again made some modification in the gating system which is
suitable for foundry and this gives increase in rate of production.
We can do optimization of gating system for better result.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I wish to thank Mr. A. A. Bailkar ManagerofMutha Engineering
Fig.(c)5% of Air Fraction Pvt Ltd Unit III and Mr. N. B. chaurasia, for his technical
guidance and support.Sincere thanks toDr. M. V. Nagarhalli,
Fig.4.6. % of Air Fraction Head of Mechanical Department, RMDSSOE, Pune for providing
encouragement and support.I am very grateful to Dr. S. V. Patil, SAE Technical Paper 200397 ( 2014 ) 1145 – 1154, doi:
Project Guide for being incredibly supportive throughout the 10.1016/j.proeng.2014.12.393
work and his exhaustive guidance and patience he has while [5] Uday A. Dabade and Rahul C. Bhedasgaonkar “Casting
listening my approaches and supporting my endeavour. Defect Analysis using Design of Experiments (DoE) and
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