2015-16 Supplier Prospectus Finite Solutions, Inc.


Finite Solutions, Inc. is the developer of the SOLIDCast™, FLOWCast™ and OPTICast™ suite of casting simulation software. SOLIDCast™ is the world’s best-selling so-


Larry Smiley President


lidifi cation modeling software package, with over 750 companies and schools in over 53 countries around the world having purchased the package. The software is sold as a site license, so this translates to many thousands of users. The original software, called AFSolid, was fi rst released in 1985 and has been up- dated and expanded on a continuous basis for almost 30 years-longer than any other commercial software tool!


being used. Filling and chilling can also be applied, if known in advance. The wizard works with conventional ‘sand’ risers, as well as with insulating and exothermic materials. The Gating Design Wizard™ is also included, to use simulation results to properly size all gating system components, such as the sprue, runner(s) and gate(s).


SOLIDCast™ is a PC-based solidifi cation modeling system that uses the Finite Differ- ence Method (FDM) of solution to predict casting cooling, combined with a simultane- ous volumetric calculation to track metal feeding and shrinkage formation in castings. SOLIDCast™ is intended to be used by the foundry engineer as an everyday tool, so we have focused on three specifi c areas of development: ease of use, speed of operation and accuracy of results.


FSI Offi ces Ohio


2931 Hamilton New London Rd Hamilton, OH 45013 Ph: 513-737-7300 Fax: 513-737-7302


Larry@fi nitesolutions.com Wisconsin


4769 Highland Park Dr Slinger, WI 53086 Ph: 262-644-0785 Fax: 262-364-2537


Dave@fi nitesolutions.com Washington


16310 NE 44th Street Vancouver, WA 98682 Ph: 360-450-3937


Rob@fi nitesolutions.com www.fi nitesolutions.com 20


Using a variety of techniques, we have been able to produce simulations of casting processes which use multi-million element meshes (thus representing the casting geom- etry quite accurately) and run in less than 30 minutes on off-the-shelf personal computers. SOLIDCast™ tracks volume changes which


occur (contraction of liquid and solidifying metal and, in the case of graphitic irons, expansion associated with graphite precipita- tion) and simulates movement of liquid feed metal in response to those volume changes. This allows the system to predict the action of risers and the formation of primary shrinkage. Other predictors are used to indicate second- ary shrinkage or structural microporosity in the casting.


A special feature of SOLIDCast™ is the Riser Design Wizard™, which uses simula- tion results from an unrigged casting to help design an adequate feeding system. Feeding paths are determined by the software, based on simulation results, taking into account the actual casting alloy and mold materials


The focus of SOLIDCast™ is prediction of shrinkage and porosity defects during solidifi ca- tion. For prediction of misruns, cold shuts and other fi lling-related defects we have a fast CFD solution module called FLOWCast™. FLOW- Cast™ solves the Navier-Stokes equations and can produce temperature, velocity and pressure information for a mold fi lling sequence. Many features in FLOWCast™, such as velocity vectors, fl ow pathlines and variable- speed animations can be used to fully un- derstand the impact of the fi lling process on casting quality. And, since FLOWCast™ results can be fed automatically into SOLIDCast™, you are guaranteed to get the best overall simulation result possible!


OPTICast™ is a tool used to automatically guide the simulation process to an optimal result, based on user-defi ned constraints. For example, you may want to fi nd the highest process yield for a part that still maintains good casting quality. OPTICast™ will automatically mesh models, run simulations, evaluate results, adjust the model and re-simulate until the optimum conditions are found. Optimization results are provided in both spreadsheet and graphical forms, in addi- tion to the actual optimized geometric model, mesh and simulation.


Using OPTICast™, the foundry engineer can start with an initial rigging design created by the SOLIDCast™ design wizards and let the computer do the work of fi ne tuning the design to achieve the optimum result. Get bet- ter results with less effort, using OPTICast™.


MODERN CASTING / 2015-16 Supplier Prospectus


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