After the casting is shaken out from the mold, it is cleaned and the risers cut off either by sawing or with the more modern oxy-acetylene torch flame.
Other Typical Steel Castings
Steel castings should be annealed in order to “refine,” i.e., make finer the grain of metal and to equalize “strains” which are set up in the castings during cooling. Coarse grain and internal strains tend to make the castings brittle. No such extended annealing, however, is necessary as is the case with malleable cast iron, for no divorcing of carbon from the iron with separation of free carbon is possible. The castings are carefully heated to a temperature of about 1600° or 1700° Fahrenheit and allowed to cool slowly.
After annealing, they are cleaned and excrescences removed by chipping, after which the castings are tapped, drilled or otherwise machined according to the purposes for which they are intended.
Cast Steel Valves, Steam Separator, and Direct-return Trap for Use with Superheated Steam
While more costly in manufacture and installation than are those of cast iron, valves, fittings and other cast steel products are, so far as we now know, practically permanent. Their notable shock resisting quality is well shown in the following table which is reprinted from page [188].
Pouring Steel into Molds from a Bottom-pour Ladle