Overview
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ABSTRACT
Due to the tonnage produced, sand casting is by far the most important process using a destructible mold. It virtually allows for the production of all types of parts (large and small, massive and thin, highly specific and extremely common), for all volumes of production (mass production in automated automotive sites and parts cast manually in single units).Other processes, lost foam casting, lost wax casting, V and ablation casting (still in development) have narrower segments of application.
Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.
Read the articleAUTHORS
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André LE NÉZET: ESF engineer, non-ferrous alloys casting expert, RENAULT, Rueil-Malmaison, France
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Michel GARAT: ESPCI engineer, private consultant, former R & D Director Aluminium Pechiney and Project Manager Rio Tinto Alcan, Peyrins, France
INTRODUCTION
Cast aluminum alloys have the advantage of being suitable for all known casting processes. Given their moderate melting temperature and good casting properties, they are most widely used in metal molds (i.e., permanent molds), gravity die-casting, low-pressure or suction die-casting, pressure die-casting (and its vacuum and semi-solid metal injection variants), especially for large-scale production runs of automotive parts. In most cases, these processes offer an advantage over sand casting in terms of cost, mechanical properties and dimensional characteristics for medium to large-scale automotive production runs.
Today, however, sand casting covers the entire spectrum of parts and applications. For certain very large automotive series with medium to high mechanical characteristics (manifolds, suspension wishbones, engine blocks, etc.), this process is once again becoming the least expensive, thanks to the use of large automated worksites with productivity of up to 300 molds (often multi-cavity) per hour (case of automated vertical parting line sand molding (Disamatic) with coreless parts). On the other hand, for medium-to-small production runs (for aerospace, railways and various mechanical industries), the use of coolers enables very high mould characteristics to be achieved, combined with complex external and internal shapes. It is obviously the best choice for single parts or large components (e.g. street furniture).
Moulding with gas-forming models (Lost foam) now seems to have found a stable niche: cylinder heads and engine blocks, as well as some very complex core-moulded parts (which create internal cavities that cannot be geometrically demoulded).
Lost-wax and plaster casting are mainly used for small and medium-sized precision parts for the aerospace, electronics and automotive industries (compression wheels or impellers for turbochargers).
The V process, on the other hand, is designed for large parts, most often for their appearance (cash dispenser casings).
Sand ablation molding is still in its infancy, although some small-scale production is underway in the USA. If its promises are fulfilled, it could cover a wide spectrum of parts, thanks to its high potential mechanical properties and its apparent advantages in terms of sand recycling.
Given the diversity of processes available in aluminum casting, it is the judicious choice of the alloy/process pairing best suited to the specifications of the part and its production volume that enables castings to be produced under the best conditions of quality and profitability.
To complete this approach, the reader is invited to consult the following articles:
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KEYWORDS
foundry design | mould design | properties of the parts | automobile parts | small series | aluminium sand casting | aluminium investment casting
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Bibliography
Theses
BRACCINI (M.). – Optimization of castings: study of hot cracking phenomena in Al-Cu alloys. INP Grenoble (2000).
SAVELLI (S.). – Mechanism identification and quantitative approach to fatigue of cast aluminum model alloys. INSA Lyon (2000).
EVANS (W.J.), JONES (H.V.), SPITTLE (J.A.)...
Brochures and catalogs
Éditions Techniques des Industries de la Fonderie catalog and Centre Technique des Industries de la Fonderie brochures.
International bibliographic databases
Aluminium Metadex
Reviews
France
Fonderie magazine (CTIF and ATF, monthly)
Revue de Métallurgie (monthly)
Germany
Gießerei (monthly)
Gießerei-Praxis (monthly)
Gießerei Forschung (quarterly)
United States
Modern Casting (monthly)
Foundry...
Exhibitions and congresses
World
World Foundry Congress; held every two years in a different country, usually at the end of the 3rd quarter.
France
Journées d'Études of the Association Technique de Fonderie (ATF); in France, every year.
SF2M annual conference organized by the French Society of Metallurgy and Materials; held every year in...
Patents
French National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI)
A large number of patents relating to aluminum alloy casting have been filed or are in the process of being filed around the world; an exhaustive list is impossible to draw up due to the constant number of filings.
To obtain information on a given subject at a given time, it is therefore advisable to contact INPI :...
Standardization
French and European standards. French Standards Association (AFNOR)
Standards NF EN ISO
- Geometric product specification (GPS) – Dimensional and geometric tolerances for molded parts. - NF EN ISO 8062 - (2007) :
- Aluminium and aluminium...
NF EN standards
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