Solidification Analysis
Investment castings are used extensively to create parts with complex geometry from difficult to process materials. Properly designing the gating and runner system is the first step to ensuring that sound castings are produced and American Casting has taken this to the next level. The gating and runner system serves two key purposes: (1) delivers metal into the part cavity and (2) feeds the shrinkage of the part as solidification occurs. At ACC, the latest solidification and flow analysis tools are utilized to validate gating and runner designs prior to building any tooling or finalizing mold designs. Furthermore, American Casting Company has a complete library of alloys and shell materials within the software that match what is used in the shop to ensure that simulations are accurate and consistent.
Benefits of Utilizing Casting Simulation
- Improved Product Quality: The overall quality of the casting is improved significantly by ensuring internal porosity and voids are eliminated. This lowers overall scrap and NDT fallout.
- Finding Issues Early: Simulation helps identify key issues, casting problems and inefficiencies in the gating and runner design prior to cutting tooling and building molds.
- Shortened Lead Time to Develop New Parts: The gate and runner design can be iterated in the virtual world very quickly eliminating time consuming experiments ran in the shop. Doing this significantly lowers lead time and development costs.
- Improved Yield: Simulations help identify waste in the manufacturing process. By optimizing the gate and runner design, pour weigh is reduced to the minimum amount required to make sound parts.
- Good Parts the First Time: Performing casting simulation helps to ensure parts come out correctly the first time. Pour and shell temperatures are also verified ensuring these parameters are correct from the start.
- Reduced Cost: The number of physical mold alterations and tests is reduced. This, and improved yield together help decrease the development time, which further helps in reducing the cost of the parts.
Solidification and Simulation Analysis Outputs
As a part of our casting simulation services, we provide flow and solidification analysis. Some of the outputs that are available once the simulation is complete are as follows:
- Shrinkage detection and porosity plots after solidification has occurred.
- “Hot Spot†detection created from shell bridging.
- Turbulent and non-fill conditions that may occur while metal is flowing through mold cavity.
- Temperature plots of the casting and mold.
- Solidification time verification ensuring metal is still liquid after mold has completely filled.
- Solidification and flow animations (.AVI formats available)
- Verification of the solidification time.
At American Casting Company we are committed to utilizing the latest technology and processes to produce investment castings of the highest quality. This has helped us gain trust from our customers and earn the reputation of being the best at solving complex problems. We have an expert team of engineering professionals with a vast amount of casting experience who are ready to help. By utilizing simulation analysis, we offer development of new castings with the industries shortest lead times, coupled with affordable prices. Please contact us today to learn more.