Abstract
In this work, a plant trial was conducted on an industrial low pressure die casting (LPDC) manufacturing process for the production of aluminum alloy wheels. Various types of data have been acquired, including extensive measurements of temperature at different locations (die, wheel and cooling channels), pressure in cooling channels and size/location of shrinkage porosity in the produced wheels. Moreover, two process conditions were tested in the trial—one was the standard production process condition and the other was designed to generate shrinkage porosity in wheels by altering the die temperature. The large amount of quantitative data acquired in this study helped us to understand the key transport phenomena occurring in the process, which include: (1) a thorough picture of the evolution in temperature at a large number of discrete locations in the die and the casting; (2) the dynamic and complicated heat transfer in the cooling channels both water-on and water-off stages, associated with boiling water heat transfer. This paper (Part I) presents the results and findings obtained from the process characterization. The follow-on paper (Part II) will introduce the developed modeling methodology based on the data produced from this work.
Highlights
The market for automotive wheels is projected to reach $50.54 Billion by 2025, which translates to a compound average growth rate of 5.52% through 2025 [1]
74 TCs were placed at various locations in the low pressure die casting (LPDC) dies (22 in the top die, 12 in the side dies, 12 in the bottom die, 3 in the environment surrounding the die and 22 in the cooling channels, and 3 were cast into wheels)
The results show that no shrinkage porosity can be identified in the wheel produced by the production process condition
Summary
The market for automotive wheels is projected to reach $50.54 Billion by 2025, which translates to a compound average growth rate of 5.52% through 2025 [1]. As part of an industry push to achieve lightness, the OEMs are requiring CITIC Dicastal to demonstrate their ability to accurately simulate in-process wheel solidification as part of the documentation they must supply to support the in-plant audit processes for qualification as a supplier Note that this is in addition to the normal quality data required for the cast wheels—e.g., SDAS, X-ray radiographs and mechanical test data. This paper (Part I) presents an overview of an extensive characterization effort undertaken on a commercial LPDC process for the production of A356 automotive wheels The aim of this program was to produce a comprehensive and accurate database suitable for the development and validation of an advanced thermal-fluid flow-solidification computational model of automotive wheel manufacturing. The accuracy of the predictions is assessed against the industrially derived process data, and areas of focus for improvement are identified
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