Owusu, Y A; Dargan T; Piwonka, T S

Abstract: A statistical method of evaluating geometric variations of casting products using point cloud data measured on a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is presented. The paper deals with a statistical analysis approach to evaluating the differences in dimensional accuracy of test castings as influenced by gating system, molding process, casting section thickness, and casting orientation. Feature paramates of flatness, parallelism, tapered angle overall length, and height of test casting were obtained from CMM point cloud data; and these were used to identify the relative importance of the factors that contribute to the dimensional inaccuracies. The scope of this study included three casting thickness: 1/4 in., 1/2 in., and 3/4 in. The three sand molding processes used for the research included resin-bonded sand lost foam (silica sand), and lost foam (low expansion sand).

Keywords: Casting products, Casting distortion, Evaluation, Gating system, Molding process, Casting orientation.