Casting Procedures and Defects: Dr. Abhinav Gupta

CASTING PROCEDURES
AND DEFECTS
DR. ABHINAV GUPTA

CONTENTS
✓Introduction
✓Steps of Casting Procedure
✓Various types of Casting Defects
• According to (GPT-9) the action of pouring or
injecting a flowable material into a refractory
mold.
• The object formed is also referred to as “a
casting”.
• There are various steps of fabrication of a
simple full metal crown.
Steps in Making a Cast Restoration
• Tooth prepration
• Impression
• Die prepration
• Wax pattern fabrication
• Attachment of sprue former
• Ring liner placement
• Assembly of casting ring
• Investing
• Burn out or wax elimination
• Casting
• Sand blasting and recovery
• Finishing and polishing
Tooth Preparation
• The tooth is prepared by the dentist to receive a
cast restorations.
• Care is taken to prevent undercuts that may
prevent seating.
Impression
An accurate impression of the tooth is made
usually with elastomers.
Die Preparation
• A die is prepared from die stone or a suitable die
material or the impression is electroformed.
Die spacer
• A die spacer is coated or painted over the die
which provides space for the luting cement.
• The relief provided also improves seating of the

casting.
Wax pattern fabrication
• A pattern of final restoration is made with type II
Inlay wax or other casting waxes with all
precautions to avoid distortion.
• A die lubricant is applied before making the
pattern to help separate the wax pattern from the
die.
Attachment of sprue former
• A sprue former is made of wax, plastic or metal.
• A reservoir is attached to the sprue or the
attachment of the sprue to the wax pattern is
flared.
• The length of the sprue is adjusted so that the
wax pattern is approximately1/4” from the other
end of the ring.
• FUNCTIONS OF SPRUE FORMER:-
✓To form a mount for the wax pattern.
✓To create a channel for the elimination of wax
during burnout.
✓Forms a channel for entry of molten allloy during
casting.
✓Provides a reservoir of molten metal which
compensates for alloy shrinkage during
solidification.
Ring liner placement
• A ring liner is placed inside of the casting ring.
• Non asbestos ring liners like fibrous ceramic
aluminous silicate, cellulose or combination of
both can be used.
• FUNCTIONS OF RING LINER:-
✓Allows for mold expansion(cushion effect)
✓Permit easy removal of the investment after
casting.
✓It acts as a thermal insulator.
Investing
• Apply wetting on the wax pattern to reduce air
bubbles.
• Seat the casting ring into the crucible former
taking care it is located near the center of the
ring.
• Mix the investment and vibrate.
• The ring is reseated on the crucible former and
placed on the vibrator and gradually filled with
the remaining investment.
• It is allowed to set for 1 hour.
Investing
Burn out or wax elimination
• Purpose of burnout is
1. To eliminate the wax from the mold
2. To expand the mold (mold expansion)
• Two stage burnout and expansion technique

✓ Ring is placed in a burnout furnace and heated to
400c in 20 minutes.
✓ Maintain it for 30 minutes.
✓ Over the next 30 minutes, temperature is raised to
700c and maintained further for 30 minutes.
• Single stage burnout
and expansion(Rapid
technique)
✓Followed only if patterns
& sprues are wax.
✓Place molds directly into
preheated oven at 700-
850c.
✓Hold for 30-40 minutes
and cast.
Casting
• Various Casting machines are used like:-
• Based on method of casting
1. Centrifugal force type
2. Air pressure type
• Based on heating system employed
1. Torch melted
2. Induction melted
3. Arc melted
• Alloy is melted with a suitable heat source.
• When the alloy is molten it has a mirror-like
appearance and shifts like a ball of mercury.
• Hot casting ring is shifted from burnout furnace
to the casting machine.
• Arm is released and allowed to rotate which
creates a centrifugal force which forces the
liquid metal into the mold cavity.
• The arm is allowed to rotate till it comes to rest.
• The ring is allowed to cool for 10 minutes till the
glow of the metal disappears.
• We do Quenching for gold alloys. The ring is
then immersed in water which leaves the cast
metal in an annealed or softened condition.
• Metal ceramic and base metal alloys are not
quenched.
Sandblasting and Recovery
• Investment is removed and the casting is
recovered.
• A pneumatic (compressed air driven) chisel is
used to remove the investment.
• Sandblasting is a process by which particles of
an abrasive(aluminium oxide) is projected at
high velocity using compressed air in a
continuous stream.
• Casting is held in a sandblasting machine to
clean the remaining investment from its surface.
Pickling
• Surface oxides like black castings from the

casting are removed by pickling in 50%
hydrochloric acid.
• HCL is heated not boiled with the casting in it.
Finishing and Polishing
• Sprue is sectioned off with a cutting disc.
• Casting is trimmed, shaped & smoothed with
suitable burs & stones
• Minimum polishing is
required if all the
procedures are followed
meticulously.
DEFECTS IN CASTING
• A casting defect is an irregularity in the metal
casting process that is undesired.
• Errors in the procedure often results in defective
castings.
• Defects in casting can be classified under four
headings:-
1) Distortion
2) Surface roughness and irregularities
3) Porosity
4) Incomplete or missing detail
Distortion
• Probably related to distortion of wax pattern.
• Can be minimized or prevented by proper
manipulation of the wax and handling of the
pattern.
• Distortion increases as the thickness of the
pattern increases.
• Lower is the setting expansion of the
investment, less lower its distortion.
• If storage is necessary, store in refrigerator.
Surface roughness and irregularities
• Surface roughness is defined as finely spaced
surface imperfections whose height, width and
direction establishes the predominant surface
pattern.
• Surface irrregularities are isolated imperfections
such as nodules.
• Excessive irregularities on outer surface
necessitate additional finishing and polishing
whereas irregularities on cavity surface prevent
proper seating.
Reasons are-
1) AIR VOIDS:-
• Small nodules on casting are caused by air
bubbles that become attached to the pattern
during or subsequent to the investing procedure.
• The best method to avoid air bubbles is to use
vacuum investing technique.
2) Water films
• If the investment becomes separated from the
wax pattern, a water film may form irregularly
over the surface as wax is repellent to water.
• Too high L/P ratio also produce this.
• A wetting agent may prevent the film formation.
3) Liquid/powder ratio
• Higher the L/P ratio, rougher the casting.
4) Composition of the investment

• Ratio of quartz and the binder influence the
surface texture of casting.
• Coarse silica produces coarse casting.
Porosity
• It occur both on interior region of casting and
external surface.
• EFFECTS:-
✓Weaken the casting
✓Discoloration
✓If severe, can cause plaque accumulation at the
tooth-restoration interface.
Classification of porosity
➢SOLIDIFICATION DEFECTS
• Localized shrinkage porosity
• Microporosity
• Suck-back porosity
➢TRAPPED GASES
• Pinhole porosity
• Gas inclusions
• Subsurface porosity
• Backpressure porosity
Localized shrinkage porosity
• Large irregular voids found near the sprue-
casting junction.
• It occurs when the cooling sequence is incorrect
and sprue freezes before the rest of the casting,
so no more molten metal can be supplied from
the sprue.
• Can be avoided by:-
✓Using sprue of correct thickness
✓Attach sprue to thickest portion of wax pattern.
✓Flaring the sprue at the point of attachment or
placing reservoir close to the wax pattern.
Microporosity
• These are fine irregular voids within the casting.
• It is seen when the casting cools too rapidly.
• Rapid solidification occurs when the mold or
casting temperature is too low.
Suck back porosity
• This is an external void seen in the inside of a
crown opposite the sprue.
• A hot spot is created by the hot metal impinging
on the mold wall near the sprue which causes
this region to freeze last.
• Since the sprue has already solidified, no more
molten material is available and the resulting
shrinkage results in suck back porosity.
• Avoided by reducing the temperature difference
between mold and the molten alloy.
Pin hole porosity
• Many metals dissolve gases when molten. Upon
solidification the dissolved gases are expelled
causing many tiny voids.
• Eg- platinum and palladium absorb hydrogen.
• Copper and silver dissolve oxygen.
Gas inclusion porosities
• They are spherical voids but are larger than pin
hole type.
• They are due to gases carried in or trapped by
the molten metal.
• A poorly adjusted blow torch can also occlude
gases.
Back pressure porosity
• This is caused by inadequate venting of the mold.
Air is trapped in the mold and is unable to escape.
• When the molten metal enters the mold the air
inside is pushed out through the porous investment
at the bottom. If the bulk of the investment is too
great, the escape of air becomes difficult causing
increased pressure in the mold. the metal is then
solidify before the mold’s completely filled resulting
in a porous casting with rounded short margins.
Avoided by:-
• Using adequate casting force
• Use investment of adequate porosity.
• Place pattern not more than 6 to 8 mm away
from the end of the ring.
• Providing vents in large castings.
Incomplete casting
• Incomplete casting may result from-
✓Insufficient alloy or alloy not sufficiently molten.

✓Alloy not able to enter thinner areas of mold.
✓Mold is not heated to proper temperature.
✓Premature solidification of alloy.
✓Sprue blocked with foreign bodies.
✓Low casting pressure.
52
•Philips Science of Dental

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CASTING PROCEDURES

DR. ABHINAV GUPTA

• The relief provided also improves seating of the

• Two stage burnout and expansion technique

• Surface oxides like black castings from the

4) Composition of the investment

✓Insufficient alloy or alloy not sufficiently molten.

•Philips Science of Dental

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