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High pressure die casting is a widely used industrial process to manufacture complex-shaped products in light alloys. Virtual prototyping techniques, especially numeric-based simulations of the casting process, allow the die filling process to be evaluated and help faster optimization of the gating system, which is the most critical element of the mould. The purpose of this paper is to present a four step approach to design optimal moulds taking advantage of the simulation tools.

No formalized method to design an optimal gating system is available yet and the majority of the studies aim to optimize existing geometries or to choose from alternative solutions. Rather than optimizing the geometries of predefined designs by running attempt trials, the proposed approach defines a procedure to position cavities, gating systems and, finally, to determine the whole mould geometry.

The approach is demonstrated through three different industrial applications. The design of a six-cavity mould for gas cooking burners is reported at first. Then, two test cases, a cup and a radiator, are reported for showing different arrangements of the gating system. The reached quality of the mould design has been assessed using metallographic analyses of the casts.

The design of a mould is strictly correlated to its product and mainly based on a trial-and-error approach. Numerical simulations offer a powerful and not expensive way to study the effectiveness of different die designs and filling processes. The paper proposes a structured approach for the definition of the gating system. It ultimately leads to improvements in both product quality and process productivity, including more effective control of the die filling and die thermal performance.

Nowadays, ample industries are fascinated to look for high strength and light weight materials for the development of robust parts. Because of light weight and high stiffness to weight ratio; usage of aluminum parts is growing rapidly, especially in automotive engineering. Process improvement of Al alloys and their grain structure refinement is the current area of interest in casting companies. In this research work, an investigation has been carried out to enhance the process improvement of die casting by optimization of various significant parameters and their refinement of grains by the effect of Nb-C novel grain refiner.

L27 orthogonal array (OA) has been considered to optimize the preferred casting input parameters such as molten metal temperature (°C), die temperature (°C), injection pressure (bar), Al-3.5Nb-1.5 C novel grain refiner and Ni alloying additions as key process parameters in order to increase the quality and efficiency of Al-9Si-3Cu aluminum alloy die casting by reducing the porosity formation.

It was observed that the porosity values have significantly decreased from 0.88% to 0.25% particularly at 0.1 wt.% of new grain refiner and 0.5 wt. % of Al-6Ni master alloy. As per the ANOVA results, it was observed that Al-3.5FeNb-1.5 C grain refiner (F value 2609.22), Al-6Ni alloying addition (F value 1329.13), molten metal temperature (F value 1002.43) and, injection pressure (F value 448.06) are the factors that significantly affects the porosity, whereas die temperature was found to be insignificant. The results show that new grain refiner is one the most significant factor among the other selected parameters. The contribution of the new grain refiner to the variation of mean casting porosity is around 57.74%. confidence interval (CI) has also been estimated as 0.013 for 95% consistency level to validate the predicted range of optimum casting porosity of aforesaid alloy.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no study has been conducted in the past to investigate the combined effect of these die casting parameters and composition factors for the development of Al-Si robust cast parts. The paper represents original research and provides new information for the fabrication of die casting parts.

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are engineered materials formed by the combination of metal matrix and reinforcement materials. They have a stiff and hard reinforcing phase in metallic matrix. The matrix includes metals such as aluminum, magnesium, copper and their alloys. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of an aluminum alloy‐aluminum oxide composite using a new combination of vortex method and pressure die casting technique and the subsequent tribological studies.

An aluminum alloy‐aluminum oxide composite was developed using vortex method and pressure die casting technique. The aluminum alloy‐1 wt% aluminum oxide was die cast using LM24 aluminum alloy as the matrix material and aluminum oxide particles of average particle size of 16 μm as a reinforcement material. The friction and wear characteristics of the composite were assessed using a pin‐on‐disc set‐up; the test specimen, 8‐mm diameter cylindrical specimens of the composite, was mated against hardened En 36 steel disc of 65 HRC. The tests were conducted with normal loads of 9.8, 29.4 and 49 N and sliding speeds of 3, 4 and 5 m/s for a sliding distance of 5,000 m. The frictional load and the wear were measured at regular intervals of sliding distance.

The effects of normal load and sliding speed on tribological properties of the MMC pin on sliding with En 36 steel disc were evaluated. The wear rate increases with normal load and sliding speed. The specific wear rate marginally decreases with normal load. The coefficient of friction decreases with normal load and sliding speed. The wear and friction coefficient of the aluminum alloy‐aluminum oxide MMC are lower than the plain aluminum alloy. The wear and coefficient of friction of the entire specimens are lower.

The development of aluminum alloy‐aluminum oxide composite using vortex method and pressure die casting technique will revolutionize the automobile and other industries, since a near net shape at low cost and very good mechanical properties are obtained.

There are few papers available on the development of (or tribological studies of) MMCs including aluminium/aluminium alloy‐ceramic composites developed by combination of vortex method and pressure die casting technique.

This paper details the development of a rapid tooling manufacturing route for the gravity and high‐pressure die‐casting industries, resulting from an EPSRC funded collaborative research project between the Universities of Warwick, Loughborough and DeMontfort, with industrial support from, amongst others, MG Rover, TRW Automotive, Sulzer Metco UK Ltd and Kemlows Diecasting Products Ltd. The developed process offers the rapid generation of mould tools from laser‐cut laminated sheets of H13 steel, bolted or brazed together and finish machined. The paper discusses the down‐selection of materials, bonding methods and machining methods, the effect of conformal cooling channels on process efficiency, and the evaluation of a number of test tools developed for the industrial partners. The paper also demonstrates the cost and time advantages (up to 50 and 54 per cent, respectively) of the tooling route compared to traditional fabrication methods.

Casting is one of the well-known manufacturing processes to make durable parts of goods and machinery. However, the quality of the casting parts depends on the proper choice of process variables related to properties of the materials used in making a mold and the product itself; hence, variables related to product/process designs are taken into consideration. Understanding casting techniques considering significant process variables is critical to achieving better quality castings and helps to improve the productivity of the casting processes. This study aims to understand the computational models developed for achieving better quality castings using various casting techniques.

A systematic literature review is conducted in the field of casting considering the period 2000–2020. The keyword co-occurrence network and word cloud from the bibliometric analysis and text mining of the articles reveal that optimization and simulation models are extensively developed for various casting techniques, including sand casting, investment casting, die casting and squeeze casting, to improve quality aspects of the casting's product. This study further investigates the optimization and simulation models and has identified various process variables involved in each casting technique that are significantly affecting the outcomes of the processes in terms of defects, mechanical properties, yield, dimensional accuracy and emissions.

This study has drawn out the need for developing smart casting environments with data-driven modeling that will enable dynamic fine-tuning of the casting processes and help in achieving desired outcomes in today's competitive markets. This study highlights the possible technology interventions across the metal casting processes, which can further enhance the quality of the metal casting products and productivity of the casting processes, which show the future scope of this field.

This paper investigates the body of literature on the contributions of various researchers in producing high-quality casting parts and performs bibliometric analysis on the articles. However, research articles from high-quality journals are considered for the literature analysis in identifying the critical parameters influencing quality of metal castings.

The systematic literature review reveals the analytical models developed using simulation and optimization techniques and the important quality characteristics of the casting products. Further, the study also explores critical influencing parameters involved in every casting process that significantly affects the quality characteristics of the metal castings.

This study aims to determine the best way to apply material flow cost accounting (MFCA) in an SME environment with the goal of visualizing negative product cost during the manufacturing process and pinpointing places where improvements can be made.

This study uses a case study approach to demonstrate the usefulness of the MFCA tool in an SME in India that produces aluminum energy products used in the electrical power sector through gravity die casting.

According to the results, the company’s gravity die casting has a negative product cost margin of 27.38% as a result of MFCA analysis. It is also determined that the negative material cost is Rs. 22,919, the negative system cost is Rs. 462 and the negative energy cost is Rs. 1,069 for processing 300 kg of raw material. The typical monthly raw material processing for this company is 45,000 kg.

This research shows that MFCA’s implementation will improve the company’s environmental consciousness and bottom line. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to implement MFCA in aluminum gravity die casting of electrical parts manufacturing.

High-pressure die casting is one of the manufacturing techniques used for the rational mass production of metal parts. Due to the high velocity of the molten metal during the injection phase, the die casting of aluminum is so complex and it is almost impossible to calculate these exact performances. Numerical simulation is an effective way to optimize the injection phase and minimize air entrapment that causes porosity defects in the metal. Generally, the filling phase of the molten metal in the shot sleeve is neglected in most scientific work. This phase is followed by a rest period to allow the escape of the resident air bubbles (gravity effect). The paper aims to discuss these issue.

It is relatively clear that the model described poses a great challenge for numerical implementation, especially for 3D geometries. The governing transport equations are solved numerically using the commercial CFD solver Fluent and the equations are discretized using a pressure-based finite volume method. The coupling pressure–velocity was solved by the PISO algorithm. The PISO algorithm takes relatively more CPU time per solver iteration, but it significantly decreases the number of iterations required for the convergence of the transient flow problems. Laminar flow inside air and molten metal was assumed. In order to describe the behavior of the molten metal, a VOF model has been activated. The model makes it possible to account for the moving boundary due to the variation of the shot sleeve volume caused by the plunger displacement. The scheme used in the discretization of momentum equation was the first-order upwind scheme, and the scheme used for the pressure was the PRESTO. The profile of the plunger velocity, boundary conditions change with time and the physical properties change with liquid fraction were used by implementation of a user-defined function. For the discretization of the domain, an unstructured mesh with triangular elements is used. After conducting mesh sensitivity study, a mesh having 53,813 triangular elements has been chosen for the present study. The convergence criterion was set equal to 10–4 for all parameters.

The results show that the rest and global filling times increase by 2.5 and 8.57 percent with decreasing the pouring velocity by 10 percent. In addition, the rest and global filling times decrease by 5.77 and 8.12 percent with increasing the pouring velocity by 10 percent.

After the filling phase, it is necessary to offer a rest period before the injection phase. However, the rest and global filling times increase by 2.5 and 8.57 percent with decreasing the pouring velocity by 10 percent. In addition, the rest and global filling times decrease by 5.77 and 8.12 percent with increasing the pouring velocity by 10 percent. Increasing the pouring velocity by 10 percent leads increasing of the molten metal velocity in the shot sleeve and requires a delay of time of the beginning of the faster plunger movement by 7–10.5 percent. On the other hand, Figure 12 shows that increasing the pouring velocity requires increasing of the plunger velocity during the injection phase, thus increasing the pouring velocity. In order to overcome this problem, it is necessary to reduce the injection velocity and prolong the period of the slower plunger movement.

Rapid tooling (RT) integrated with additive manufacturing technologies have been implemented in various sectors of the RT industry in recent years with various kinds of prototype applications, especially in the development of new products. The purpose of this study is to analyze the current application trends of RT techniques in producing hybrid mold inserts.

The direct and indirect RT techniques discussed in this paper are aimed at developing a hybrid mold insert using metal epoxy composite (MEC) in increasing the speed of tooling development and performance. An extensive review of the suitable development approach of hybrid mold inserts, material preparation and filler effect on physical and mechanical properties has been conducted.

Latest research studies indicate that it is possible to develop a hybrid material through the combination of different shapes/sizes of filler particles and it is expected to improve the compressive strength, thermal conductivity and consequently increasing the hybrid mold performance (cooling time and a number of molding cycles).

The number of research studies on RT for hybrid mold inserts is still lacking as compared to research studies on conventional manufacturing technology. One of the significant limitations is on the ways to improve physical and mechanical properties due to the limited type, size and shape of materials that are currently available.

This review presents the related information and highlights the current gaps related to this field of study. In addition, it appraises the new formulation of MEC materials for the hybrid mold inserts in injection molding application and RT for non-metal products.