PRODUCT INNOVATIONS
Casting Simulation Reduces Costs for Metalcaster, Customer Epcor Foundries, Cincinnati, a
division of Seilkop Industries Inc., added casting simulation software to its tooling division, HiTech Shapes & Designs, saving money in pattern debugging and allowing it to put parts into production faster. Epcor produces aluminum green
sand castings for the automotive, heavy truck, fueling, bulk handling, pump and air movement industries. Before purchasing the simulation software, the metalcasting facility had to manu- ally make adjustments to its gate and runner systems and validate designs through a series of trials before going into production. Each tooling modifi- cation had a direct impact on program timing and startup costs. “Our goal at Epcor is to get the design
right the first time,” said Mike Maratta, the company’s program and engineering manager. “We looked at several different casting simulation software packages. We liked ESI because it offers an entry level package called QuickCast that is easy to use. We tried it on a few trial parts and found it was able to accurately simulate our molding results.” Epcor applied Quickcast to a 356 aluminum supercharger housing his- torically produced with an iron chill to accelerate the solidification process and eliminate shrink or porosity at the base of the rotor bores. Using a chill adds cost to the casting due to upfront tool- ing expense, part complexity and labor. Senior design engineer Paul Kiefer
for HiTech Shapes & Designs convert- ed the CAD model of the housing to
After the design modifications, two sound castings were achieved.
an STL file to use in the Quikcast soft- ware package. Te mold components were assembled using the software’s user interface. Te software automati- cally produced a block-structured mesh, and process parameters were defined along with material properties and conditions. Te software then produced results that enabled Epcor to visualize the mold filling, solidification process and resulting part. “With the original mold design, we
saw shrinkage in the heavier areas of the part and in isolated bolt bosses,” Maratta said. “We tried a few changes, including changing the gate position and adding risers to feed additional metal into the casting as it cooled.” After making the changes, Epcor
re-ran the simulation and saw the gating filled evenly and reduced the metal tur- bulence as the alloy filled the cavity. Te casting facility worked with its customer to discuss the simulation results and review the proposed casting changes. With the okay from its customer, Epcor cut the tooling for the core boxes and patterns and ran a few sample parts. “Te mold produced good parts that
exceeded the customer’s requirements from the very first casting,” Maratta said. “Te quality is good, and the cost was reduced since we were able to eliminate the chill. Most important, we were able to make a better part right out of the gate, shortening the develop-
ment and startup time.” Visit
www.esi-group.com for more information.
An isometric view of the supercharger housing is shown.
Shrink was removed from the casting and moved inside the riser. December 2011 MODERN CASTING | 43
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