Investigation of flowability of the green sand mould by remote control of portable flowability sensor

Purpose: The useful data and information during the sand compaction process steps should be collected. Direct measurement methods of the sand mould properties during the actual moulding process are not adopted yet. Design/methodology/approach: In this work, a remote control system [1] have been integrated into a new flowability sensor [2]. Findings: To overcome the complexity of the tools and equipment that existed in laboratory, and in foundry. Research limitations/implications: In order to investigate, and control behavior of the moulding process of bentonite-bonded green sand process, the sensors have been equipped with the Bluetooth technology for a wireless transmission of the measured data to computers. Originality/value: This technique contributes to improve of the compaction process based on the non-destructive tests, enhances prediction of the optimum parameter conditions, and reduced the energy, and the compaction time consumed for the green sand moulding process.

Mould design optimisation by FEM

Production can be briefly defined as creating something new as a result of effort. There are many different production methods. With the industrial revolutions, the number of these methods has increased, and these methods have developed. Over time, heavy and laborious work that people had to do began to be done by machines. The casting method, which is one of the most common production methods in the world, is to pour the molten metal or its alloy into a mould cavity suitable for the shape of the desired product and remove it from the mould after it solidifies. In this study, firstly, the manufacturing method by casting was mentioned, and the difficulties of mould design in the casting method were explained. Secondly, the benefits of computer-aided simulation programs for casting are explained. As an example, a model was designed and different runners were added to this model. These models, which were prepared afterwards, were cast in a virtual environment with the FLOW-3D CAST program, which is a simulation program. Casting results and casting defects after these castings were compared and interpreted. The results show that it is important for the casting quality to keep the runner diameters as small as possible in runner designs. Two or three times more air voids are formed in the sand mould casting method compared to the permanent mould casting. Additionally, it was observed that the casting material had less shrinkage in the sand mould casting method. It is concluded that sand mould casting is disadvantageous in terms of the parameter of time.

Improving of Green Sand-Mould Quality using Taguchi Technique

The green sand mould casting is an inevitable process to make large size and complex shape of the industrial components. The quality of green sand in mould is a significant phenomenon on casting quality. In this research, the number of ramming, sand thickness mould, and percentage of additives (western bentonite) mixing with sand have been considered to study the effects on permeability and hardness of mould by L27 orthogonal array. Greensand mould experiments have been conducted in the industry to observe the output parameter variations by Taguchi statistical analysis. It was revealed that the maximum permeability and minimum sand hardness have been obtained from the minimum number of ramming, thin sand thickness, and minimum mixing of additives in the sand. The confirmation tests were conducted to validate the predicted control parameter on responses.

Shrinkage Elimination in Casting of GG30 Grade Cast Iron Impellor by using Pro-cast Software& Finite Elemental Analysis by Meshcast Software

There are 100+ submersible pump manufacturers in Rajkot Engineering Cluster. So, there are 100 plus foundry engaged in casting of cast iron impellor for submersible pump. They face shrinkage defect after casting and about 10 % rejection is because of shrinkage.[1] So in order to reduce this defect casting simulation software is very helpful. By using Pro-Cast simulation software mould of impellor is imported in Pro-Cast software and by applying sand mould condition, pouring temperature, pouring time etc. are put into the software, and finally result shows the areas of impellor where shrinkage chances are more.

Utilising Flowability Sensor for Green Sand Mould Characterisation

In this work, an attempt has been made to improve the sand casting process by reducing the percentage of casting defects. The enhancement of the sand casting process is based on producing green sand castings with good pattern profiles and no failures at any complex ‎points during the separation process, handling and transportation. This work ‎introduces modified, non-destructive, direct tests for measuring sand mould ‎properties using sensor readings. ‎A new flowability sensor has been used to measure the time-dependent density, ‎distance-dependent mould hardness, and distance-dependent mould strength. The ‎sensor is able to detect sand motion at the desired points during the mould-making process. The live characterisation of the green sand mould is used to determine the optimum ‎parameters for the compaction process, reduction of the moulding time, and spent ‎energy, so that the cost of the moulding and casting process will be reduced.‎ It has been found that there is a linear relationship between the properties of the green sand samples and the sensor signals. The new method facilitates the measurement of sand properties and determines the most effective moulding parameters based on the flowability sensor readings. The resultant increases in both compactibility and compaction pressure improve mould hardness and mould strength.