. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CASTINGS IN ACTION
Plane Keeps Its Cool With Sand Casting Cast Component: Air conditioning housing unit.
Material: A356 aluminum with T6 heat treatment.
Process: Green sand casting.
Casting Supplier: AlumAlloy Co., Ontario, Calif. • The one-piece, 4.3-lb. sand casting holds the
compressor motor for the air conditioner on a small aircraft. Only 100 units were needed, so for this application, the sand-cast part offered the best combination of strength vs. weight with a low cost for tooling and castings.
• During the design phase, the customer worked with the metalcaster to agree on wall thicknesses, toler- ances and x-ray requirements. Multi-piece weldments, investment castings, permanent mold castings and hog-outs mwere considered for the part. In the end, the design was checked with several hogged-out samples while the tooling was being made for the castings. The metalcaster assured the customer that design changes, if needed, could easily be incorpo- rated into the metal matchplate tooling.
• The castings, which were machined in-house by the metalcaster, featured 0.1-in. thick walls and passed 100% X-ray inspection. Tooling costs were less than $5,000. The fi rst parts were being machined as the fi nal round of parts were being cast.
MARCH/APRIL 2010
METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING
19
Photo by Hopro,
Dreamstime.com.
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