referring to fig1 , there is shown a sectional view of a portion of a mold 100 constructed in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . the mold 100 includes a part - defining cavity 102 ( the majority of which is not shown ). molten metal flows downwardly through the part - defining cavity 102 and through a sorter passage 104 and into a seed cavity 106 . in one embodiment , the cross - section of the sorter passage 104 is generally cylindrical , although alternate shapes may be utilized without departing from the scope of the present invention . upon filling with molten metal , the mold is directionally cooled , starting with the seed cavity 106 . as it cools , the metal solidifies in the seed cavity 106 as a plurality of elongated grains which extend upwardly toward the sorter passage 104 . as is known in the art , upon solidification a few of the grains extend from the seed cavity 106 and into the sorter passage 104 . as these grains continue to grow , it has been found that the most favorably oriented grain will grow at a greater rate than the other grains , thereby eliminating the growth of the other , less favorably - oriented grains . as the metal solidifies into the part - defining cavity 102 , only a single grain is present , resulting in the desired single crystal structure . as briefly described above , traditional mold designs fail to address thermal expansion stresses introduced between the solidifying metal and the mold during solidification which can result in premature mold failure or other casting deficiencies . essentially , the geometry of the sorter passage 104 and the part - defining cavity 102 is such that it acts as a locking point to build up a large thermal stresses above it . if left unmanaged , the thermal stress can cause mold breakage . according to a first embodiment of the present invention , such adverse effects are reduced by constructing the portion of the mold between the sorter passage 104 and the part - defining cavity 102 to include a notch 108 . the presence of notch 108 provides a stress release point in the resultant metal casting , such that the mold can remain intact without breakage . in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , notch 108 should be sufficiently small so as to result in breakage of the casting from the thermal stresses before such stresses can damage the mold . conversely , the notch 108 cannot be too severe so as to restrict the flow of molten metal through the sorter passage and into the seed cavity . additionally , a severe notch may also make the assembly and handling of the wax pattern used to form the mold more difficult . in one embodiment , in a mold having a sorter passage with a diameter of ⅛ inch , the diameter of the circumferentially notched portion should be greater than or equal to 1 / 16 inch or half of the overall diameter of the passage . in addition to the size of the notch , the angle of the notch may also have important effects on mold performance . more particularly , it has been found that configuring the notch as a circumferential notch in the same plane as the cleavage plane of the intended single crystal orientation results in desirable breakage of the cast part . one embodiment of such an angled notch is shown in fig2 . although size and angle of the notch may effect casting breakage , notches of various shapes are complexities may be used and are within the scope of the present invention . one example of an alternate notch embodiment is shown in fig3 , wherein the notch 108 is simply formed on one side of the area above the sorter passage 104 . in addition to improved effectiveness , the mold design of the present invention is also easy to implement in that it does not require modification in the casting conditions or in the mold making process . additionally , since the breakage occur in the sorter passage area , it has no undesirable effects on the cast part itself . accordingly , no re - design of the part is necessary . in testing the mold design of the present invention , a set of 8 casting experiments was performed to address the mold cracking problem . the experiments were performed in a directional solidification furnace cooled by liquid aluminum . more particularly , the casting configuration was a stage - 1 bucket which requires the use of a seed / sorter assembly ( described above ) to develop a single crystal structure . it should be understood that , in the present experiment , a “ bucket ” is a critical airfoil component that is devised to convert the energy of the hot gas coming out of the combustor to turn rotors and generate electricity . typically , there are three consecutive stages of bucket / rotor in a gas turbine engine , with stage - 1 being the first next to the combustor . due to the high temperature and large force that a stage - 1 bucket has to endure , it is desirable to be made of a single crystal structure , particularly in advanced engines . the stage - 1 bucket used in this set of experiments is about 15 - inches long with complex geometry . the molds used in the experiments were made from wax patterns with or without a notch above the sorter passage . additionally , the molds were also made with a number of different mold reinforcement techniques . in order to show mold cracks , the metal surfaces were chemically etched after the casting runs to show the degree of reaction with aluminum resulting from mold cracks . table 1 summarizes the mold conditions and the casting results of these experiments . in table 1 , the term “ coats ” refers to the number of stucco layers used to build up the thickness of mold , and “ reinforcement ” refers to features added during the mold - building process . additionally , reinforcement features used in this set of experiments further include the following elements : ( 1 ) tube : an alumina tube that is attached to a selected location of the mold , typically , near the trailing - edge ( te ) of the bucket component . the attachment is typically done in the middle of the mold dipping process , so that the alumina tube is embedded in the wall of the finished mold . ( 2 ) clamshell : a half of an alumina tube embedded in the mold . ( 3 ) nextel : woven cloth of alumina thread , which is applied to the mold during the mold building process by using a ceramic cement agent . ( 4 ) safil blanket : a blanket made of safil fiber , which is soaked with slurry and applied to the outer surface of the mold . ( 5 ) graphite : woven cloth made of graphite fiber , which is applied to the mold during the mold building process by using a ceramic cement agent . as shown above , four of the eight castings used molds incorporating the notch 108 of the present invention ( lmc - 74 to - 77 ). additionally , of the four notched molds , two of those four castings successfully developed breakage at the notched area ( lmc - 76 an - 77 ). additionally , these two castings corresponded to the highest surface quality score in this set of experiments . although certain mold reinforcements appeared to also help reducing the mold crack and improving the casting surface quality , the above result indicated that an notch in the wax pattern can lead to desirable breakage in the casting , reduce the tendency of mold crack , and improve the surface quality of casting . by providing a mold design wherein thermal stresses produced during solidification may be safely released , the mold of the present invention enables prolonged mold life and improved casting quality . while only certain preferred features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein , many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art . it is , therefore , to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention .