Research of Reverse Engineering on Dimensional Accuracy of Parts in Digital Casting Process

Abstract

Dimensional accuracy has been recognized as the main challenges for castings that we have to overcome as manufacturing industry is proceeding at an astounding rate. The advent of rapid casting has already changed the casting patterns, which means that foundry of metal part is no longer restricted by difficulties of tooling processing especially in the case of complex design castings. It is true that this new technology which is time-saving and high-precision relatively may create new types of quality problems. The overall effort of the present article is to evaluate the dimensional accuracy of sand mold and metal part throughout the digital casting process so that a more accurate dimensional compensation could be applied to the next time. The dimensional accuracy of sand mold manufactured by 3D Printer and the final aluminum-based tire mold casted by the sand mold have been discussed quantitatively by using three-dimensional laser scanner. The effect of different directions on dimensional deviation of important surface is also discussed in this paper. It is found that the difference of sand mold mainly depends on the deviation in printing direction and a downward trend of the patterned surface would appear after the post curing. For the metal casting, appropriate dimensional compensation 1mm/m upon the pattern surface in Z direction is a good choice for further designing. This reverse engineering approach is applicable to not only the tire mold forming but also other industrially relevant parts manufacturing.