There are two defects in this category: hot tears and hot spots.

Hot tears, also known as hot

cracking, are failures in the casting that occur as the casting cools. This happens because the
metal is weak when it is hot and the residual stresses in the material can cause the casting to fail
as it cools.
Hot cracking is a kind of hot cracking, which is characterized by crooked crack shape, irregular
fracture surface, wide surface and narrower inside. The mechanism is as follows: the molten steel
begins to condense after it is injected into the mold cavity. When the crystal framework has been
formed and linear shrinkage begins, the shrinkage is blocked because the molten steel is not
solidified into a solid state at this time, and the stress or plastic deformation will occur in the
casting. When they exceed the material strength limit at this high temperature, the casting will
crack.

Morphology and characteristics of hot cracks

Hot crack is a kind of crack which is caused by the blocked solid shrinkage of the casting when
the strength and plasticity of the casting are very low at the end of solidification or shortly after
solidification. . The hot cracks initiate and propagate along the grain boundary, and their shape is
uneven, tortuous and irregular. The surface of the crack is oxidation color, no metallic luster. The
crack surface of steel casting is nearly black, while that of aluminum alloy is dark gray. The
external crack can be seen by naked eye, and can be distinguished from cold crack according to
the shape and fracture characteristics.
Hot crack can be divided into outer crack and inner crack. The hot crack that can be seen on the
surface of casting is called external crack. The external cracks often occur at the corner of
casting, the sharp change of section thickness, the slow solidification and the stress
concentration. It is characterized by wide surface, narrow interior and tearing shape. Sometimes
the fracture will run through the whole casting section. Another characteristic of hot crack is that
the crack distributes along the grain boundary. The internal crack usually occurs in the final
solidification part of the casting. The shape of the crack is very irregular, and the cross section is
often accompanied by dendrites. Generally, the internal crack does not extend to the surface of
the casting.

Causes of hot crack formation

There are many theoretical and practical reasons for the formation of hot cracks, but the
fundamental reason is the solidification mode and the thermal stress and shrinkage stress during
solidification.
After the liquid metal is poured into the mold, the heat loss is mainly through the mold wall, so
the solidification always starts from the surface of the casting. When a large number of dendrites
appear at the later stage of solidification and form a complete skeleton, solid shrinkage begins to
occur. However, there is a layer of liquid metal film (liquid film) between the dendrites. If the
shrinkage of the casting is not hindered, the dendrite skeleton can contract freely without force.
When the shrinkage of dendrite skeleton is hindered by sand mold or sand core, tensile stress
will be produced if it can not shrink freely. When the tensile stress exceeds the strength limit of
the material, the dendrites will crack. If the pulling speed of dendrite skeleton is very slow, and
there is enough liquid metal around the pulling part to flow into the crack in time, the casting
will not produce hot cracks. On the contrary, if the crack is not replenished by liquid metal, hot
cracks will appear in the casting.
It can be seen that the alloy with wide solidification temperature range and mushy or sponge
network solidification mode is most prone to hot cracking. With the narrowing of the
solidification temperature range, the hot cracking tendency of the alloy decreases, and the alloy
with eutectic c
omposition solidified at constant temperature is the least likely to form hot cracking. Hot
cracking occurs in the solidification period of castings, but it does not necessarily mean that hot
cracking occurs during solidification. It mainly depends on the thermal stress and shrinkage
stress during solidification. The thermal stress in the solid grain skeleton in the solidification
region of the casting is easy to cause hot cracking or subcutaneous hot cracking; The shrinkage
stress caused by external factors is the main condition of hot cracking. When the casting shell is
in solidification state, its linear shrinkage is hindered by external factors such as sand core,
molding sand, surface friction between casting surface and sand mold, there will be shrinkage
stress (tensile stress) in the shell. The thin shell formed by the hot spot, especially the sharp
corner at the hot spot, becomes the place where the shrinkage stress is concentrated, and the
casting is most likely to produce hot cracking in these places.

The causes of hot cracks are reflected in the process and casting structure, including uneven wall
thickness and small internal angle;
There are too many bifurcations in the lap joint, which hinder the normal shrinkage of the
casting;
For example, the pouring riser is close to the box belt or the sand strength between the pouring
riser is very high, which limits the free shrinkage of the casting;
The riser is too small or too large;
The linear shrinkage of the alloy is too large;
The forming elements of medium and low melting point phase in the alloy exceed the standard,
and the contents of sulfur and phosphorus in cast steel and cast iron are high;
It is too early to open the box and the cooling is too fast.
How to prevent hot crack
01. Improve casting structure
The wall thickness should be uniform, and the corner should be rounded to reduce the stress
concentration. The spokes of wheel castings can be bent if necessary.
02. Improve the melting quality of alloy materials
Refining and degassing processes are used to remove the oxide inclusions and gases in the liquid
metal. Control the content of harmful impurities and adopt reasonable melting process to prevent
cold cracks.
03. Adopt correct casting process measures
It is not only helpful to prevent hot crack, but also helpful to prevent cold crack to make casting
solidify at the same time. The position and size of the riser should be set reasonably to make the
cooling rate of each part of the casting as uniform as possible and reduce the tendency of cold
cracks.
Determining the residence time of castings in sand mold correctly sand mold is a good heat
preservation container, which can further homogenize the temperature of thicker and thinner
parts of castings, reduce the temperature difference between them, reduce the thermal stress, and
reduce the tendency of cold cracks. Prolong the residence time of the casting in the mold, so as to
avoid large internal stress and cold crack in the casting caused by premature unpacking.
It is an effective measure to prevent cold cracking of castings due to shrinkage stress by
increasing the concession of sand mold and sand core, removing the pressing box iron as soon as
possible after solidification and loosening the fastening device of sand box. The sand mold and
sand core of large castings can be removed in advance after pouring, so as to reduce their
shrinkage resistance to castings and promote the uniform cooling of all parts of castings. In the
process of sand dropping, cleaning and handling, collision and extrusion should be avoided to
prevent cold cracks.
04. Aging heat treatment
The casting with large casting stress should be treated with aging heat treatment in time to avoid
cold cracks caused by excessive residual stress. If necessary, an aging heat treatment should be
carried out after cutting the riser or welding.

Cold cracking
The cold crack is caused by the local casting stress greater than the ultimate strength of the alloy
when the casting is cooled to the elastic state after solidification. The cold crack always occurs in
the place where the tensile stress is concentrated during cooling. Cold crack is different from hot
crack. Cold crack usually propagates through the whole section, and its shape is straight or
broken line with uniform width. The fracture surface of cold crack is pure metallic luster or mild
oxidation color, and the crack trend is smooth, rather than along the grain boundary. This is
significantly different from hot cracking. Cold cracks can be seen by naked eyes, and can be
distinguished from hot cracks according to their macroscopic morphology and microscopic
characteristics of transgranular growth.
When the casting stress in the casting is greater than the strength limit of the metal, the casting
will produce cold cracks. Therefore, all the factors that increase the stress and decrease the
strength of the metal may cause cold cracks in the casting.

Main causes of cold cracks

01. Casting structure
The uneven wall thickness of castings causes casting stress and sometimes cold crack defects.
Due to the obstruction of rigid structure, the casting is easy to produce thermal stress, which
makes the casting produce cold cracks. For example, a box casting with uniform wall thickness
of “thin wall and large core” will produce temporary shrinkage stress due to the obstruction of
sand core. When it exceeds the tensile strength of alloy material, the casting will produce cold
cracking.
02. The design of riser system is unreasonable
For the castings with uneven wall thickness, if the inner gate is set in the wall thickness part of
the casting, the cooling speed of the thick wall part of the casting will be slower, which will lead
to or aggravate the difference of the cooling speed of each part of the casting, increase the
thermal stress of the casting, and promote the casting to produce cold cracks. Improper setting of
pouring and riser directly hinders the shrinkage of castings and causes cold cracks in castings.
Because the gate is thinner than the casting, the gate solidifies first. When the casting shrinks
inward and is hindered by the gate, the tensile stress will be produced, and it is easy to produce
cold cracks on the wall between the two gates. Secondly, the high-temperature strength or dry
strength of molding sand or core sand is too high, and the high-temperature yield is poor, which
hinders the shrinkage of the casting and produces great tensile stress, resulting in cold cracks in
the casting.
03. Unqualified chemical composition of alloy material
The high content of carbon and other alloy elements in steel makes the casting prone to cold
cracks. Ductile alloy materials are not easy to produce cold cracks, brittle alloy materials are
easy to produce cold cracks. Phosphorus is a harmful element in steel ω（ P) When the ratio is
more than 0.05%, the cold brittleness of the steel increases and cold cracks are easy to occur. In
gray cast iron, the existence of excessive anti graphitization elements will also increase the
shrinkage of castings, resulting in cold cracks.
04. Control the unpacking time
If the casting is opened too early and the temperature of sand dropping is too high, the casting
will crack when it is impacted and squeezed during sand cleaning.