Had to pick between two different riser sleeve types for a big steel casting job

We were pouring a 500-pound steel gear blank last month and the choice was between standard ceramic sleeves or these newer exothermic ones. I went with the exothermic kind even though they cost about 15% more. It kept the riser hot way longer, so the shrinkage cavity pulled up into the sleeve like it should. The yield was better and we saved about 40 pounds of metal per piece in the sprue. Has anyone else tried switching riser types on heavier pours and seen a big change in yield?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryand263d ago

Nice call on the exothermic sleeves. We switched over for our big valve castings and the scrap rate dropped a lot. The extra heat really does make a difference on those heavy sections.

foster.drew3d ago

Wait, your scrap rate dropped a lot just from switching sleeves? That's wild, @ryand26. We tried those on some big housings and saw maybe a small change, nothing huge. Makes me wonder if our feeding setup was wrong the whole time. The heat really must be the key for those super thick valve sections. Gotta go back and check our numbers again.