Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
(OP)
I am working on a pump housing project. The cast iron housing some cast iron housing comes in with invisiable crack. We manufacture pumps by volume, there is no time to do one by one check. Is there any way I can check? Chemical or Mechanical? Thank you for the help!





RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
Dye penetrant such as Zyglo, dye-chek, and others
Magnetic particle
You may also wnat to look at the casting process/item design, to minimize/eliminate the possibility or cracking.
regards
Dave
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 2005 SP0.1
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
Magnetic particle will show sub-surface cracks.
However, both of these methods are visual inspections.
Quality cannot be inspected into a product. You need to address the underlying quality issues at your foundary.
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
- Inspecting all incoming raw castings 100 pct or by sampling or not at all.
- Inspection by dye penetrant, magnetic particle, or air leak test.
- Accepting that some castings, and some entire lots of castings, will be flawed, saving the cost of upfront inspection but spending the cost of replacing castings that fail or otherwise become unsatisfactory at various stages of production or in customers' hands.
- Inducing the founder to inspect the castings before shipping them, e.g. by paying him to do so.
- Immersing the raw castings in Loctite (290?) penetrating sealant to close up the smaller cracks and areas of porosity.
Except for estimating or measuring the various costs and throughput of the options, it's not really an engineering problem, it's a business problem.
Mike Halloran
NOT speaking for
DeAngelo Marine Exhaust Inc.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
Regards,
Cory
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
MT and PT are both good method for finding cracks, though PT can only find surface cracks. You need to determine if a subsurface crack is a problem.
A few other techniques that you might want to investigate are; ACFM & Eddy Current.
A technique that is fast and can be used to inspect cast iron for cracks is ACFM (Alternating Current Field measurement). This technique can be automated and provides a record of the results.
You might want to investigate eddy current testing, along with the determination of cracks, you can obtain data on the part's hardness differences, chemistry changes, and surface roughness.
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection
Don't you mean parallel to x-ray beam, rather than perpendicular.
Problem should be sorted out so that every casting does not have a crack. If you're worried about inspection costs (although this does depend upon casting shape) hit the damn castings with a hammer. You should be able to detect a more clunky and less ringing sound if the casting is cracked. You then apply MT or PT only to those castings that clunked, or were doubtful.
RE: Cast Iron Cracking Inspection