INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND - Volume 6, Issue 8,, December 2017 (Special Issue)

Pages: 432-439

Date of Publication: 24-Dec-2017

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DEVELOPMENT OF FEEDER DESIGN USING CASTING SIMULATION

Author: Dr. G Naveen Kumar1 Abhishek Raghav2 Saurabh Chakraborty3 Ankur4

Category: Engineering, Science and Mathematics

Abstract:

In metal casting, defect free castings which require least finishing operations has been the primary goal since the inception of technology.It is always desired that the yield of casting is maximized against the volume of feeder/riser accommodated to meet the solidification shrinkage requirement. Major casting defects, such as shrinkage cavity, porosity, hot tears etc. occurs during or as a result of solidification phenomenon of the molten metal. These defects can be minimized by appropriate changes in feeding parameters, such as feeder location, feeder shape and size, feeder neck shape and size. Selecting the correct set of parameters that lead to the desired quality and yield, is important but difficult to achieve. The practical approach of design of feeder has high factor of safety and due to that oversized feeders have normally been designed and tested on shop floor. This consumes lot of time and resources. Thus, there is a need for computer aided optimal feeder design coupled with solidification simulation so as to reduce the no. of the shop-floor trials and obtain enhanced yield and high quality, in minimal possible time. The initial design is the aluminium casting part (without feeder) which is simulated online in Efoundrytodetect the location of hotspot. Then a feeder is designed on the following steps: determination of the feeder-neck connection point on the casting surface, initial feeder design and feeder shape optimization using Efoundry till the hotspot is obtained in the feeder itself. The same part is then experimentally poured and verified with cut-section. It is observed from actual pouring that shrinkage cavity had shifted towards the feeder whereas it remained at the centre of the junction in the non-feeder part. It is concluded at the end that the selection of proper feeder affects the quality of casting during solidification.

Keywords: Simulation Efoundry; Feeder Design. shrinkage defect, directional solidification.