Schmidt, D C

Abstract: Casting process simulation is being used by foundries to model the production process before tooling is built and castings are made. The objectives of the simualtions are improving casting quality, reducing-time, reducing costs and optimizing the gating and risering system. Optimization requires the identification of the basic factors: (1) design variables (2) constraints and (3) objective function. Two case studies are presented showing the results of using these simulation techniques. An aluminum automotive bracket casting was engineered to minimize microporosity. The second example involves a plain carbon steel alloy support frame for heavy equipment. In this situation, the optimization run was set up with 10 variables, ran over night and an improved yield was obtained.

Keywords: Casting process, Eliminating modeling, Foundries, Optimization, Simulation.