Solidification and Filling Related Defects Analysis Using Casting Simulation Technique with Experimental Validation

Abstract

Solidification as well as filling has great influences on the quality of cast products. In modern competitive world for increasing the quality of products these two steps draw higher attention to casting engineers. This case study is just one of the followings of the above mentioned objective. The aim of the present work is to reduce the rejection rate of cast products in a foundry shop due to casting defects in sand casting process using a computer aided simulation technique. In general conventional techniques require a larger number of trials with higher costs for checking outputs when the number of process parameters increase that can be reduced using simulation. For the simplification in this analysis grain size of sand, material quality, casting process parameters are considered uniform for all cases. Only the positional and dimensional variances are taken in considerations for defects analysis. It is found that defects such as shrinkage porosity, improper solidification, air entrapment, mould erosion are directly related with gating and feeding system design and although other process parameters are considered uniform but this defects will be changed with changing the design parameters. In this case Click2cast casting simulation software is used for mould filling and solidification analysis and it is observed that proposed gating and feeding system design improves casting yield approximately 15% more than conventional gating and feeding system. The validation of simulation is proved through experimental trials in foundry shop.