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range, very little isothermal solidification and nucleation occur- ring simultaneously throughout the casting), which produces significant segregation of alloying elements and prevents ad- equate feeding during solidification


During all phases of the development, both high strength and high toughness variants will be developed for specific military applications. The principal investigators for this project are Dr. Robin Foley and John Griffin, University of Alabama at Birmingham.


Developing an Improved Combination of Strength and Permeability for Investment Shells UsedWith Foam Patterns


The importance of this project is that manufacturing processes to produce larger complex shapes with tight dimensional toler- ances is needed. This is especially true for lower volume and higher strength cast materials, like steel, which is important in the area of large caliber weapons systems development and production. Investment casting with foam patterns is currently a preferred technology with Benet for producing limited run, large scale (over 300 lbs.) parts of complex shape. This technol- ogy will allow the production of lighter weight parts. This proj-


ect will improve thin section fill and dimensional reproducibility for steel castings, such as muzzle brake and breech components (loading trays and raven breech nozzles, for example). The po- tential for this technology to address this need has been dem- onstrated, but optimization is required to take full advantage of the potential of the technology to improve quality and reduce production lead times. The program will combine development activity and tests conducted at MS&T with industrial trials on defense-relevant components. It is anticipated that future work could focus on additional components, more complex assem- blies and other cast metals and alloys. The principal investigator for this project is Prof. Von Richards, Missouri University of Science and Technology.


Visual Inspection of Cast Products


This project will provide a comprehensive investigation on ways to improve visual inspection tasks for the metalcasting in- dustry. The major areas of investigation will include: impact of human factors on the inspection process, environmental vari- ables, training, surface anomaly mapping and case studies with technology transfer. This project is jointly sponsored by SFSA, AFS and NADCA. The principal investigators are Frank Peters, Iowa State University, and Ted Schorn, Schorn Associates.


Casting Process and Alloy Assistance


AFS Information Services Library


The AFS website offers assistance for casting design engineers in selecting the best casting process for a potential component, and also provides casting alloy design and property data on many com- monly used alloys. The website provides casting users, design en- gineers and purchasers with relevant and accurate information on casting capabilities and properties, providing easily accessible and retrievable information from a single site. The alloy data can be quickly exported to spreadsheet or FEA tools. The site is housed on the AFS Metalcasting Design website www.metalcastingdesign. com and is part of the Metalcasting Process Selector tool. The comprehensive site includes assistance for selection of alloys, cast- ing process, alloy property data for many common alloys and a metalcaster directory to locate potential casting sources.


Technical Resource


Technical department staff and technical committee members provide quarterly columns for Modern Casting and Metal Casting design & Purchasing. The quarterly column, CastTIP, documents the best practices for various procedures and tests used in the metalcasting industry. A new column, the Defect Detective, will discuss various casting defects and potential causes and solutions. AFS technical staff associates continue to support AFS members and casting users through telephone and email requests for technical help, casting problems and metalcasting information.


International Journal of Metalcasting/Winter 2012


The AFS library online database serves the needs of the metalcasting industry for current and historic metalcasting information. AFS is continuing to electronically archive the full aFs transactions series using non-destructive scanning technologies. The project will be complete in 2012, with all AFS Transactions fully electronically archived and web searchable, for the very first edition (published in 1896) to the present.


The updated and advanced AFS library website with almost 40,000 papers and articles about metalcasting are available for purchase. Located at www.afslibrary.com, the website houses the world’s largest collection of metalcasting refer- ence material.


The online AFS library is powered by a Google search en- gine, providing state-of-the-art functionality to help users find articles quickly. A real time online help desk feature can assist users in refining their search or locating a specif- ic article. The site then provides the option to purchase the AFS copyrighted papers and articles by automatic down- load or email.


For more information on the library website, contact AFS Information Resource Assistant Katie Doherty Matticks at 847/824-0181, ext. 294.


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