Final Report Summary - LEAN (Development of light-weight steel castings for efficient aircraft engines)
Executive Summary:
The overall object in LEAN, Development of light-weight steel castings for efficient aircraft engines, was to develop existing investment casting manufacturing methods to enable replacement of more expensive materials with thinner steel components for aircraft engines. The work was divided between research institutes and industry. Swerea SWECAST, the Swedish foundry research institute, which has a long tradition in collaboration with the industry in research projects was the responsible project leader and leader in one of the work packages (Minimize section thickness of steel alloy 17-4PH). The Polish Foundry Research Institute, which has advance equipment for material science and material data investigations, was the leader of the second work package (Castability limits for other steel alloys). The foundry TPC Components AB conducted casting trials and contributed with their wide knowledge of investment casting.
Casting trials have been performed in order to investigate the influence of different process parameters governing the fluidity of thin walled investment castings. The alloy used was CbCu7-1, i.e. the cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardening steel 17-4PH. Two levels of geometry complexity were used as well as top- and bottom gated casting systems. In the first trial, a simple slightly curved blade was cast with blade thicknesses ranging from 0.7-2.0 mm. Pouring temperature, shell temperature and blade thickness were variables in these trials. In the second trial, some features were added to the blade as well as a textured surface on one side to improve castability of a subset of the blades. Pouring temperature, pressure height and blade thickness were chosen as variables in these trials. As expected, a rather large variation in fluidity was observed. It was shown that the top gated casting system showed an overall improved fluidity compared to the bottom gated casting system for the simpler geometry. Blade thickness and pouring temperature were shown to have the greatest impact on fluidity. Adding some features to the simple geometry drastically decreased the differences between the filling systems. Whereas the top filling system still showed to be dependent on process parameters, the bottom filling system showed low dependency of the selected parameters. Using a one side textured blade with thickness of 1.3 and 1.5 mm was comparable with 1.5 and 2.0 mm flat castings thus reducing weight of the thinnest sections of a steel casting. Predictions of miss-runs with simulations were shown to be in good agreement with experiments and gave valuable insight to problems in the casting trials. Differences in porosity levels were seen between the top- and bottom gated casting systems, where the former showed a larger amount of porosity. Tensile testing of the thin blades was performed and all samples had yield- and tensile strengths within specifications. However, some specimens had an area reduction below the minimum value. This could readily be explained by the occurrence of shrinkage porosities.
Besides work performed on fluidity of the cast analogy of 17-4PH, a number of other alloys not commonly used for castings today were evaluated in terms of their fluidity and were compared to 17-4PH. Before casting trials, measurements and calculations of liquidus and solidus temperatures were performed. It was shown that JETHETE 152M had the best fluidity followed by Custom 465, L0H12N4M and 17-4PH. CSS 42L and PH13-8M ranked worst in the fluidity comparison and were therefore excluded from further investigations. Mechanical testing at both ambient and elevated temperatures was performed and it was shown from that all alloys met the demands of tensile strength. However, JETHETE 152M was later excluded due to its corrosion properties. In the corrosion test, at 400 degrees Celsius, for 100 hours with salt spray fog, it was determined that the 17-4PH and L0H12N4M showed similar corrosion rate with minimal differences. Wettability test performed on two different shell systems with 17-4PH showed that the shell/alloy system is important to consider during filling of thin sections. However, after a thorough consideration, taking into account other aspects, such as stiffness, weld ability and machinability, it was concluded that the cast analogy of 17-4PH was the most suitable alloy. Therefore, this alloy was used in the casting trials of a demonstrator. It was demonstrated during the casting trials that filling of a wide flat section with a thickness below 2 mm is hard to achieve.
Project Context and Objectives:
Overall strategy of the work plan
The overall objective for the LEAN-project was to further develop existing investment casting manufacturing method to enable casting of thinner steel components for aircraft engines. The goal was to facilitate replacement of the lighter and more expensive titanium components with investment cast steel components. Hence, the objective of the proposed project was to develop methods to manufacture high-strength, thin-walled steel castings and thus making stainless steel a viable engineering material for castings used in aerospace engine applications. The overall strategy to reach the goal was to work both with a currently used steel alloy and at the same time explore other steel alloys which are not commonly cast today. The cast analogy of the stainless steel alloy 17-4PH, CbCu7-1, was chosen as the reference alloy. The work performed with 17-4PH focused on identification of process parameters that had the largest impact on the fluidity of thin walled investment castings. Within the project, different process parameters affecting the minimum wall thickness achievable and final quality and post processing methods in order to achieve desired properties investigated. Heat treatment and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) was used to improve the final properties of the castings. The possibility of using chemical milling for further reduction of wall thicknesses was also considered at the beginning of the project. The work with steel alloys not commonly cast today, focused on adopting promising steel alloys and compare them with the reference alloy in terms of both fluidity and material properties. The goal was to identify higher-strength steel alloys for aero-engine components which are possible to use at a higher service temperature than 17-4PH. The alloys for this part of the project are used today as sheet metal or as forged materials. The castability limits for the alloys were investigated through lab scale cast trials followed by metallurgical, corrosion and mechanical investigations. Finally a more complex demonstrator was cast to raise the TRL-level of the project findings.
Description of project organisation and work packages
In order to have an efficient research and development organisation, the work was divided between industry and research institutes. Swerea SWECAST (SSC) was the responsible partner in the project. Swerea SWECAST has a long history of working close to the industry in applied research projects. The Swedish investment casting foundry TPC Components AB (TPC) conducted the casting trials and contributed with their wide knowledge of investment casting. The Polish Foundry Research Institute (FRI) had all necessary equipment to conduct state of the art research in terms of materials science and material data investigations. FRI have a long history of international and multidisciplinary projects focusing on foundry technology. FRI also has the facility to conduct controlled investment casting experiments. The work was divided among the different partners into different work packages and sub tasks along with responsible organisation as follows:
• WP1, Project management (SSC)
• WP2, Minimise section thickness of the steel alloy 17-4PH (SSC)
o Task 2.1 Investment casting of simple geometries
o Task 2.2 Investment casting of complex geometry
o Task 2.3 Post-processing of investment castings
• WP3, Castability limit for other steel alloys (FRI)
o Task 3.1 Casting of selected alloys with simple geometries
o Task 3.2 Final casting of selected alloys with complex geometry
Project management, technical coordination, information, communication of project and dissemination of research results were carried out in WP1. WP1 was the single point of contact for communication with topic management (TM) according to a communication plan set by TM and SSC. WP1 was also responsible for economy, milestones, results, and effects on short and long term. The main project leader was responsible for the information and communication strategy. The objectives of WP1 were to secure that the work progressed and to report the progress and any deviations from the work plan. The results were communicated from WP1 to TM.
The overall goal in WP2 was to explore, characterise, and push the minimum castable section thickness of 17-4PH steel to its limit. The objectives for WP2 can be summarised as follows:
• Optimise the casting conditions on simple geometries based on casting trials and numerical simulation.
• Develop and validate a reliable simulation methodology for thin walled steel investment castings
• Validate optimal casting conditions on a more complex model
• Investigate casting quality requirements, defects, material properties of thin walled steel investment castings
• Explore the possibilities of post processing operations like HIP and Chemical Milling on thin walled steel castings
The works in WP2 focused on identification and optimise the governing parameters for fluidity in thin walled investment castings. CbCu7-1, the cast analogy of 17-4PH was chosen as alloy. Fluidity, defects and mechanical properties of the thin sections were investigated. Additional post processing methods, such as Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), were also investigated as a possibility to reduce potential porosity. The work was based on a series of carefully planned Design of Experiments (DoE) to facilitate statistical evaluations of the results. Both single effects as well as interaction between effects of different process parameters were studied. The casting trials were performed under production conditions in an investment casting foundry. Two levels of geometry complexity were used as well as top and bottom gated inlet systems. First, a simple slightly curved blade was used to identify and study parameters related to the fluidity. Later, some features were added to the blade to increase its complexity. Also in an attempt to decrease the weight of the thin sections, a non-flat surface was evaluated. As the properties after heat treatment of the castings are of major importance in depth studies were performed, defect levels and mechanical performance of the thin sections were taken into account. The work in WP2 was divided into three different tasks, where Task 2.1 and 2.2 focused on minimising the wall thickness and task 2.3 focused on post processing methods.
The overall goal of WP3 was to explore the castability limits of steel alloys that are not commonly cast today. The objectives of WP3 were:
• Evaluate and rank the castability of wrought steel alloys for simple geometries
• Develop optimised casting process parameters for selected alloys
• Develop optimum heat treatment parameters for selected alloys
• Evaluate the castability of selected alloys in complex geometries
CbCu7-1, the cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardening steel 17-4PH was fully investigated in WP2. The main objective of WP3 was to evaluate and rank the castability of at least 3 wrought steel alloys not commonly used today as cast material and compare them with CbCu7-1. The work in WP3 was divided into two different tasks. Task 3.1 focused on ranking and optimising the castability of selected alloys. The alloy selection process was conducted in collaboration with the TM. This work also focused on the final properties of the castings, i.e. the development of heat treatment parameters, taking defects into account and investigating corrosion, gasification and wetting properties. The goal was to condense the number of alloys by excluding the worst performing alloy after each test. In Task 3.2 these optimised conditions were applied by casting a thin walled demonstrator of the most promising alloy.
Project Results:
WP1- Project management
WP1 was focused on project management, technical management, technical coordination, information and communication of project and dissemination of research results. WP1 was the single point of contact for communication with Topic Manager (TM) according to a communication plan set by TM and WP1. The objectives of WP1 were to secure that the work was making progress and to report the progress and any deviations from the work plan. The project results were communicated from this work package to TM and the Clean Sky Office.
WP2 - Minimize section thickness of steel alloy 17-4PH
Task 2.1 - Investment casting of simple geometries
A literature survey was fist conducted to give a solid base for the choice of relevant process parameters for the DoE. The result from the survey revealed that thin walled investment castings have been a research interest for a long time. The main conclusions from the survey of thin walled investment castings are summarised below:
• A distinction is made between flowability and fillability depending on which mechanism is reducing the ability of the metal to flow. Fillability is related to surface tension and flowability is controlled by heat transfer.
• Fluidity is improved by increasing super heat, mould temperature or pressure head.
• Fluidity is influenced by changes in alloy composition.
• Flow rate and shell permeability are also important parameters that will influence fluidity.
• Vacuum-assisted casting and vibrating are methods that have been presented in literature to further increase fluidity in thin sections.
At the same time, an additional literature survey was performed which focused on the properties of precipitation-hardened cast steel. Also calculations of properties were performed in JMatPro. The main conclusions from this survey can be concluded as follows:
• The final properties can be tailored in detail by fine-tuning alloy composition and heat treatment, even though the result is very sensitive to small changes in production environment.
• Copper was found to be the alloying element that has the most pronounced effect on fluidity in terms of viscosity and surface tension.
• Above the upper limit for cast Cb7Cu-1 (Cu>3%) might cause problems with precipitation control, mechanical properties and welding.
In the experimental work in Task 2.1 two different levels of complexity were used, both shown in figure 1. The terminology of the different levels from here on will be Simple Geometry 1 and Simple Geometry 2, where the latter had an increased level of complexity. It was decided to use both the standard casting procedure, top down pouring, as well as bottom up pouring. All trials were performed under production like conditions. Ceramic moulds were produced, following standard foundry procedures, by continuously dipping and stuccoing the wax assemblies until the desired thickness of the shells were achieved. Due to company secrets no information about the recipe of the slurries used for the shelling can be made public. After the investments had dried they were placed in an industrial autoclave for de-waxing. After subsequent sintering had been accomplished to harden the shells, they were preheated in a push-through furnace for a minimum of two hours before molten steel was poured into the mould. CbCu7-1, cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardened steel 17-4PH was used for the casting trials. Before casting trials, thermal analysis was carried out to establish the liquidus temperature of the alloy as well as the chemical analysis. The chemical composition of the alloy is shown in table 1. Filming the pouring process continuously from start to end for all trials was done by conventional DVD-recorder as well as IR-FLIR instrument.
For Simple Geometry 1 a slightly curved blade was used, with the dimensions of 100 x 150 mm in width and height respectively. Four different thicknesses between 0.7 and 2.0 mm were used. A standard four armed runner system was used for both filling systems. A 10 ppi filter was placed in the pouring cup for both the bottom and top gated casting system. Process parameters for Simple Geometry 1 were chosen based on the literature survey. Besides thickness, pouring and mould temperature were chosen as the primary parameters and varied in two levels. The flow rate in these trials was assumed as constant due to the filter position at the cup. The test plan amounted to a total of 128 castings trials. However, since each tree consisted of all four thicknesses, the number of poured trees was reduced to 32. All shells were placed in the same position in all trials i.e. same blade dimension was pointing towards the ladle for all trees poured. Figure 2 is illustrating the casting trials for Simple Geometry 1. To a larger extent resemble the GKN geometry from the proposal a boss was added at the center of the blade for Simple Geometry 2. Based on the casting trials for Simple Geometry 1, the blade with thickness of 0.7 mm was excluded since it was shown to be impossible to fill. The blades were attached to a downsprue via a three armed runner system. The runner system was designed to facilitate inlets to the blade at three different locations. No filter was used in this series of casting trials. As the main goal for Simple Geometry 2 was to further narrow the process window it was decided to vary pouring temperature and pressure head in three different levels. The variation of pressure head was only possible for the bottom gated casting system. In the trials for Simple Geometry 2, the mould temperature was assumed to be constant as the blades were insulated with K-Wool. All shells were pre-heated to 1050°C. No filters were used in these trials.
Both bottom and top gated runner systems were used. As for previous trials, the casting was performed under production like conditions. Each set up was repeated three times. Besides these trials also trials with a non-smooth (textured) surface were evaluated in terms of fluidity. In all trials the response of fluidity were evaluated as the projected area of the partly filled blades by means of digital image processing according to figure 3.
Nova Flow&Solid was used as the primary simulation code and was used extensively throughout the project. The objective was to develop a simulation methodology of a generic type to be used for miss-run predictions of steel investment castings. Also, equally important, was that the simulations facilitated defect tracking in a realistic way. A lot of effort was therefore devoted in identification and adjustment of the simulation parameters.
Because one of the major findings in the literature survey was the improved effects on fluidity using vacuum assisted casting, it was decided to evaluate this technique. The purpose is to create a pressure difference which will aid the filling of thin sections and small narrow features. The principle is equivalent to increasing the pressure height. The system consisted of three parts, one casting tank in which the shell is placed, one vacuum tank and a vacuum ejector. The basic idea of the pressure system was that the ejector should be used to decrease the pressure in the vacuum tank before casting. The shell was then placed in the casting tank. The valve between the casting tank and the de-pressurized vacuum tank was then released during filling to get a quick decrease in pressure in the casting chamber while the vacuum ejector was used to maintain the low pressure during the whole casting sequence.
Task 2.2 - Investment casting of complex geometries
The results from Task 2.1 were taken as input to perform more complex castings with even thinner wall thickness. For simplicity, a combination of the geometry used for the casting trials for Simple Geometry 2 with a one side texture surface was used. Simulations were performed to decide the optimal parameter set up to be used for the casting trials. In these trials special considerations were taken to the feeding during solidification to reduce the defect level in the casting. The feeding was accomplished by adding wedges at one side of the blade, see figure 4. The size and positions were based on numerical simulations. Two castings were mounted on a two armed gating system with the same dimensions as in previous trials. A bottom gated casting system with a sprue height of 300 mm was used. The manufacturing of wax patterns and shells followed the same procedure as in Task 2.1 see figure 5. CbCu7-1, cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardening steel 17-4PH was used for the casting trials. Insulation of the thin sections was used to decrease the temperature drop during the time from removal from the pre-heating furnace to pouring. Within the frame of the project, a demonstrator of the GKN geometry was cast. The wax patterns were produced at FRI and shipped to TPC for shelling and casting. The inlet and gating system were designed at TPC. The shell manufacturing followed the same procedure as previous and CbCu7-1 was used as alloy.
Task 2.3 - Post-processing of investment castings
The possibility to further improving the final quality of the resulting castings by post-processing was investigated in Task 2.3. Among several possible methods, Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) was chosen as the most promising technique. The fabrication of investment castings is prone to residual internal defects, resulting in a reduction of fatigue strength and creep resistance, but also in an increased scatter in mechanical data. HIP treatment of the casting, a method known as casting densification, can increase the average level of these properties significantly and reduce the statistical scatter. The method can be used to remove gas porosity as well as shrinkage porosity. Investment castings for HIP trials were produced at TPC using a bottom up pouring system and a blade thickness of 2 mm. The HIP was performed at FRI using a pressure of 1500 bar and a temperature of 1180°C for five hours. Porosity evaluation by X-ray images and 3D X-ray tomography was performed on the castings before and after HIP for comparison. Tensile testing of the blades which were subjected to HIP treatment was compared to the non-HIP treated samples. Also the dimensional changes of HIP treated blades were investigated.
Conclusions WP2
In the statistical evaluation the projected area of the blades was used as a measure of fluidity. Generally, the top gated casting system showed a larger degree of filling compared to bottom gated system for Simple Geometry 1. The pouring temperature followed by the thickness had the largest impact on fluidity for the top gated system while the opposite behaviour was shown for the bottom gated system. Both the pouring temperature and the thickness had larger impact on fluidity for the top gated system compared to the bottom gated system. For Simple Geometry 2 the differences between top- and bottom gated casting systems showed only minor differences in filling. However, the top filling system was shown to be much more sensitive to chosen process parameters than the bottom filling casting system. The top filling system also showed a somewhat larger scatter in the fluidity results compared to the bottom filling system. For the top filling system the pouring temperature and the filling time showed to be the most important parameters. The bottom filling system showed only minor or no influence on the chosen parameters. By using a one side textured side of the blades it was shown that the thickness could be reduced for the same fluidity which corresponds to a weight reduction for minimum thickness panels of 15-20%.
The filling results of the Complex Geometry showed a complete filling of all castings. X-ray investigation of the blades showed that the defects in the thin sections had been heavily decreased. However, some minor cracks and surface defects could be observed in the castings.
Miss-runs were observed for casting trials of the 1/16 part demonstrator cast at TPC Components AB. This could however be attributed to a deviation in section thickness. The measured thickness at the edge of the miss-run was in the range of 1.0 to 1.3 mm instead of the nominal 2.0 mm. The assisted vacuum casting experiments failed because enough low pressure was not achieved. This could be attributed to an excessive leakage. The problem was identified to the sealing between the casting chamber and the lid.
Penetrant testing showed large differences between top and bottom gated castings with respect to the amount of large pores close to the surface for Simple Geometry 1. Average porosity area of the heat-treated samples varied from 2‰ for the bottom gated system to almost 10‰ for the top gated system. The larger pores were examined with SEM, which indicated a shrinkage mechanism. CT scanning of the blades showed a substantially larger porosity level for the top gated 2 mm blades at high pouring temperature compared to the bottom gated blades. But for the lower pouring temperature no difference was observed. Heat treatment had a drastic effect on microstructure with respect to morphology, grain size and amount of delta-ferrite. The amount of delta-ferrite in the bulk samples was heavily decreased upon heat treatment. In thin heat-treated sections, the amount of delta-ferrite decreased further due to different temperature response during cooling. There was no difference between top and bottom gated samples with respect to grain size or delta-ferrite. Also the resulting hardness was above the minimum requirements for ASTM A747A standard. The 17-4 PH castings from the trials in Simple Geometry 2 were heat treated following the specifications for condition H1025 in the aero standard ASM 5343E. The expected martensitic micro-structure was obtained. A total of sixteen principally equivalent samples were tested for tensile properties. All samples had a yield and tensile strength equal to or above the minimum value according to the AMS 5343E standard. Four samples, however, had an area reduction below the minimum value. This could readily be explained by the occurrence of shrinkage porosity within the material.
Miss-run predictions and defect tracking was shown to be possible with simulations to a high degree of confidence for all geometries including the demonstrator. Accurate material properties for both the alloy and shell are however needed. Also, the knowledge of the correct temperature profile for the shell at the time of pouring was also shown to be important.
For the HIP treated blades the internal porosity level decreased considerably, as was shown by 3D X-ray tomography. The resulting material therefore shows less scatter in tensile properties compared to material that was not HIP treated. The amount of delta-ferrite in the microstructure was decreased due to the HIP process. This is a result of the extended homogenisation of the material during high temperature cycle and is generally believed to beneficial for the tensile properties of the material. It might be possible to improve the material properties of HIP treated 17-4 PH by optimising the total heat treatment process, increasing the HIP temperature or the temperature of the ageing step, thereby decreasing the yield strength and increasing the ductility of the heat-treated material. Due to the HIP treatment some dimensional changes was observed.
WP3- Castability limit for other steel alloys
Task 3.1 - Casting of selected alloys with simple geometries
A literature survey was first conducted which was supposed to give enough information about which alloys that was shown to be the most promising ones. However, it was shown that the information in literature was inadequate. Therefore the alloys were selected by TM and the project management. The following alloys were chosen as candidates at the beginning of the project:
• 17-4PH (reference alloy)
• Custom 465
• PH13-8M
• CSS 42L
However, after discussions two additional alloys were added to the evaluation:
• JETHETE 152M
• L0H12N4M (steel commonly used in Poland)
Experimental
Fluidity tests were performed for the selected alloys under laboratory conditions. The test geometry consisted of bars with different thicknesses (2-10 mm), see figure 6 The casting was performed with a bottom gated casting system. All bars (2-10mm) were mounted on a circular bottom plate. The fluidity for each alloy was measured as the filled distance of each bar. The whole casting procedure consists of following steps:
• Furnace charging
• Melting and overheating
o Chemical composition measurement
o Chemical composition correction
• Slagging and deoxidisation
• Temperature measurement
o Final chemical composition
• Transfer of the mould to pouring stand
• Metal tapping
Chemical composition was taken for each batch and the results are shown in table 2. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used for establishing liquidus and solidus temperatures for each selected alloy. DSC was also used to measure the specific heat. Dilatometer was used to measure thermal expansion and Laser flash technique was used for thermal conductivity measurements. These thermo-physical properties were later used as input to the simulations. Also wettability, corrosion and gasification tests were performed for some of the alloys.
In the casting trials the mould temperature was held constant to a temperature of 930°C to 950°C at the moment of tapping for all alloys. However, the tapping temperature differed to some extent depending of the liquidus temperature of the alloy. A summary of the liquidus and solidus temperatures along with tapping temperatures for the alloys are presented in table 3. After casting, each alloy was heat treated and subjected to mechanical testing at both ambient and at an elevated temperature of 400°C. The heat treatment cycle differed among the alloys, see the internal report D3.2 “Documentation of first batch of cast trials”. Because each alloy differed in chemical composition also different heat treatment routes were needed for each alloy.
The results from the fluidity experiments, illustrated in figure 7 and 8, show an almost linear relation between fluidity and thickness for most of the alloys up to 4 mm. All alloys, except PH13-8M and L0H12N4M, showed an improved fluidity using a pouring height of 10cm. Even though the alloy PH13-8M was shown to have good fluidity properties it was excluded for further testing due to the need of an extremely high temperature for flowing. To get the alloy to flow properly a tapping temperature at or above 1700 °C was needed. At this temperature it is well known that the metal dissolves a lot of gases and the risk of defects thereby increases drastically. A degradation of the lining in the furnace (Al2O3) was also observed at this temperature. CSS 42L was excluded due to extremely poor fluidity properties and that the alloy was shown to be prone to hot cracking. Taking this into account the ranking from the melting- and castability experiments showed that JETHETE 152M had the best fluidity followed by Custom 465, L0H12N4M and 17-4PH.
The remaining alloys were subjected to micro-structure investigations as well as mechanical testing. After heat treatment, all alloys showed a dendrite martensitic structure with islands of delta-ferrite. The mechanical testing showed that all tested materials have a tensile strength within aero specifications. Based on these tests, JEHTETE 152M was shown to have the best mechanical properties followed by L0H12N4M, 17-4PH and Custom 465. Even if JETHETE 152M was introduced as an alternative alloy at the beginning of the project and was shown to have good fluidity and mechanical properties it was excluded for further testing because of insufficient corrosion resistance. This decision was taken in consensus at a coordinate meeting with the TM and all project partners involved. Taking all results into account and also making a simple estimation of stiffness, weldability, and machinability 17-4PH was considered as the highest ranked alloy, followed by Custom 465 and L0H12N4M.
Task 3.2 - Final casting of selected alloys with complex geometry
Additional experimental work was performed in Task 3.2 to investigate gasification and wettability of mould materials and corrosion resistance of selected alloys. The alloys tested were 17-4PH from both FRI and TPC along with L0H12N4M. Custom 465 was excluded from further analysis because of availability. The interaction of the ceramic mould and liquid alloys was investigated using a unique apparatus for high temperature studies because such phenomena as gas release, chemical reaction and wetting of mould material are responsible for porosity formation as well non-metallic inclusions in castings. Two ceramic shell systems, taken from TPC and FRI, were examined with respect to gasification. Wetting phenomenon is taking place between molten alloy and ceramic mould when the contact angle formed at the triple point melt/substrate/gas is below 90°. In figure 9 the wetting behaviour for 17-4PH from TPC and FRI are shown. As can be seen 17-4PH from TPC shows non-wetting behaviour while the alloy from FRI shows wetting. This is an additional factor affecting quality of the final castings since it is responsible for liquid metal penetration inside porous mould accompanied with its fragmentation and detachment, causing introduction of non-metallic inclusions into the melt.
Moreover, in most metal/ceramic system wetting has reactive character related with the formation of wettable reactive product at the interface. However, this effect may cause strong bonding between the mould and the casting, dimensional changes of the mould as well as local detachment of the reaction product and its introduction to solidifying alloy (“washing” effect), all contributing to the formation of casting defects. The wettability tests were performed for every combination between the shell systems used at TPC and FRI in combination with two different chemical compositions of 17-4PH (TPC and FRI) and L0H12N4M. The sessile drop method was applied for measurements of the contact angle values versus time using contact heating procedure and high-speed CCD camera with 100 fps equipped with LabView software for drop image acquisition. The wettability tests lasted for four minutes.
All investigated alloys showed high reactivity in 4-min contact with all mould materials resulting in the formation of reaction in the region under the drop. The wetting results presented in figure 10 to 12 showed that the ceramic mould material from TPC was non-wettable for all investigated alloys. Thus one may expect that this material has also lower reactivity with examined alloys. On the contrary, under identical testing conditions, the mould material from FRI showed a larger wetting tendency, compared to the ceramic shell from TPC. More detailed structural characterisation of reaction product region is needed in order to understand the mechanism of interaction between the liquid metal and the mould material.
Using the same apparatus and by the method of large drop, measurements of surface tension and density of liquid metal of 17-4PH steel alloy were performed. From these measurements a surface tension of 1560 mN/m and a density of 7.00 g/cm3 were found.
Based on the preliminary results of wettability studies the following conclusions were made:
• The best combination is: 17-4PH TPC alloy with mould from TPC
• The worse combination is: 17-4PH FRI alloy with mould from FRI
Gasification of the ceramic shells was estimated by continuous registration of the amount of residual gases using a Quadrupole spectrometer QMS 200 during heating of as received mould samples to a temperature of 1200 °C. The following parameters were recorded during the cycle from ambient temperature, heating and cooling:
• Pressure inside the chamber
• Composition of residual gases
• Temperature near the sample (inside the support)
The results from the gasification are shown in figure 13 for the shells from TPC and FRI respectively. Both types of ceramic mould materials showed gasification during heating to processing temperature, particularly from the mould delivered by TPC. However, proper preheating helps significantly reduce gas release from the moulds thus special attention should be paid to the mould treatment directly before the contact with molten alloys.
Corrosion tests were performed using the same alloys as for the wettability tests for a time period of 100 hours. The corrosion tests were performed in a new developed thermo-chamber using a saline atmosphere. The corrosion tests continued for 100 hours at a temperature of 400°C in a chamber with an atmosphere containing a 5% salt fog. The following materials were subjected to the corrosion test.
• 17-4PH from TPC
• 17-4PH from FRI
• LOHI2 from FRI
It was clear from these tests that the salt fog accelerates corrosion for all studied samples. The alloy with the lowest observed corrosion rate was L0H12N4M, even if the difference was small. The formed oxide surface during the test consisted of iron oxide (FeO) with small quantity of Cr (6-16%).
After laboratory testing the aim was to cast a demonstrator of the GKN geometry given in the proposal. It was decided to carry out the casting in two stages by first casting 1/16 and later 1/4 of the full casting. The geometries are illustrated in figure 14. The thin sections of the GKN casting had a nominal thickness of 2.0 mm. Due to a combination between accessibility and taking all properties into account it was decided to use 17-4PH as cast alloy. The chemical composition of the alloy is shown in table 4. Before casting, excessive work was carried out designing the inlet and gating system. This was accomplished using MagmaSOFT and FLOW3D. The material data used in the simulations were compiled from both experimental measurements and calculations in JMatPro. From the simulations it was shown that important factors for filling thin walled investment casting are among several; mould temperature, pouring temperature, satisfactory venting of the cavity for good gas evacuation and providing laminar flow of metal during filling. The final inlet system for the 1/16 casting is illustrated in figure 15, which is based on the simulation results in figure 16. The inlet system and ceramic shell for the 1/4 GKN casting is illustrated in figure 17.
Silicon rubber was used as tooling material for the wax patterns. This method is used for prototype making to prevent high costs of metal tools and allows for manufacturing about a dozen of wax patterns. According to the designed concept, separate wax models were connected to a gating and feeding system. This part of manufacturing was performed manually. Ceramic moulds were produced by consecutive dipping and stuccoing the wax assemblies until the desired thickness of the shell was achieved. Due to FRI secrets no information about the recipe of the slurries used can be made public. After the investment the shells were left to dry and later subjected to de-waxing in an industrial autoclave. After the subsequent sintering had been accomplished to harden the shells they were preheated and ready to be poured. The shells were placed in a metal container and the shells were surrounded by sand, see figure 18. This served two purposes. Firstly the surrounding sand gave support to the shell and thereby decreased the risk of shell cracking during filling and solidification. Secondly, the surrounding sand also served as an extra insulation which minimised the temperature drop of the shell during transport from the furnace to the pouring area. The process parameters used in the casting trials were finally decided to:
• Mould temperature: 950 °C
• Tapping temperature: 1650 °C
Miss-runs were present in the 1/16 of the demonstrator as can be seen in figure 19. None of the castings had a complete fill. Miss-runs were seen at different locations of the thin parts of the casting. It was also obvious from the results that the design of the inlet system resulted in that two melt fronts met at an outer edge, a position with a high potential of miss-runs. In figure 20, a comparison between X-ray computer tomography and defect simulation is presented for the 1/16 of the demonstrator casting. The casting of the 1/4 of the demonstrator was also unsuccessful, see figure 21. During filling effects of gas explosions were observed indicating that a high degree of moisture was left in the shell during filling. A main factor responsible for successful filling of thin-walled investment castings seems to be castability of the alloy. There are several factors which influence alloy castability and not all of them have been investigated during this project.
In investment casting, there are basic factors which should be controlled during the process, most of them are temperature parameters but also such factors as air humidity, chemical composition, ceramic shell parameters and the presence of oxides or impurities should be taken into account. Anyway, casting of thin-walled castings from steel alloys is till now not quite recognized and still requires additional investigations and both practical and simulation based experiments (in the range of gating and feeding system configurations to ensure a laminar flow of melt into cavity). Information relating to case studies is still poor. Performed simulations gives only a picture of some parts of the process, but a wide range of input parameters should be confirmed since confrontation with real results often require a lot of practical corrections.
The cast element made from the certified 17-4PH alloy was examined for the structure homogeneity after heat treatment according to table 5. The samples collected from different parts of the element (1/16 of the whole demonstrator) were examined by metallographic technique, see figure 22. The metallographic observations confirmed the homogeneity of the sample micro-structure, which consisted of a delta ferrite embedded in a martensitic matrix with some non-metallic inclusions.
Conclusion WP3
• Wall thickness limits which guarantee obtaining of good casting were observed during trials of thin-walled castings made from 17-4 PH alloy, thickness below 2 mm is not fully realisable
• CT X-ray tomography is a very helpful tool for identification of internal defects (porosity, discontinues), especially in thin-walled castings
• Best performance was observed for 17-4 PH alloy and ceramic mould made from used in TPC material (company secret)
• Gas release during the casting process may cause the formation of porosity in the castings
• HIP treatment improves mechanical properties and reduces porosity in ready castings, but also causes slightly dimensional deviations
• Despite that first demonstrator trials did not give positive results is advisable to continuing the investigations to obtain a good thin-walled casting from steel alloys like 17-PH
Potential Impact:
Today, most investment castings for aerospace applications are produced outside of the European Union. Also most knowledge of the investment casting technique is found outside of the EU, primarily in the United States.
An important outcome from the project is a general increase in knowledge of the investment casting technique within the European Union and detailed knowledge of casting thin-walled durable steel castings using the investment casting technique. As a consequence, European foundries will be able to supply end users, e.g. the aerospace industry, with light-weight high-performing steel castings.
The economic and environmental demands on the aviation industry require energy efficient aero engines. To withstand the increasing operating temperatures required for higher fuel efficiency levels, while maintaining low weight, expensive titanium cast components are often used in critical parts of the aero engine. If the same level of material performance can be maintained using cast steel components, massive cost savings are possible.
Enabling a more cost efficient manufacturing of the aero engine makes it feasible to replace other components in the air craft with higher performing materials, which in turn would result to an overall decrease in the weight of the air craft. The effect of the weight reduction is a large decrease in overall fuel usage during the air craft’s usage cycle.
List of Websites:
Contact details to partisipants:
Below contact information to all the partners in the project is provided:
Swerea SWECAST (Coordinator)
Postal address: P.O. Box 2033, SE-550 02 Jönköping, Sweden
Visitors address: Tullportsgatan 3, SE-553 22 Jönköping, Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)36 30 12 00
www.swereaswecast.se
Martin Risberg (Project Coordinator)
Phone: +46 (0)36 30 12 62
Mail: martin.risberg@swerea.se
Mats Holmgren (Manger director)
Phone: +46 (0)36 30 12 01
Mail: mats.holmgren@swerea.se
TPC Components AB (Partner)
Postal address: P.O. Box 517, SE-734 27 Hallstahammar, Sweden
Visitors address: Brånstaleden 2, SE-734 32 Hallstahammar, Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)220 219 00
www.tpcab.se/eng/
Mohsin Raza (Project contact)
Phone: +46 (0)220 219 32
Mail: mohsin.raza@tpcab.se
Mark Irwin (Manger director)
Phone: +46 (0)220 219 01
Mail: mark.irwin@tpcab.se
Instytut Odlewnictwa (Partner)
Address: ul. Zakopia´nska 73, PL-30-418 Kraków, Poland
Phone: +48 12 26 18 324
www.iod.krakow.pl
Jacek Przybylski (Project contact)
Phone: +48 12 26 18 372
Mail: jprzyb@iod.krakow.pl
Jerzy Sobczak (Manger director)
Phone: +48 12 26 18 324
Mail: sobczak@iod.krakow.pl
The overall object in LEAN, Development of light-weight steel castings for efficient aircraft engines, was to develop existing investment casting manufacturing methods to enable replacement of more expensive materials with thinner steel components for aircraft engines. The work was divided between research institutes and industry. Swerea SWECAST, the Swedish foundry research institute, which has a long tradition in collaboration with the industry in research projects was the responsible project leader and leader in one of the work packages (Minimize section thickness of steel alloy 17-4PH). The Polish Foundry Research Institute, which has advance equipment for material science and material data investigations, was the leader of the second work package (Castability limits for other steel alloys). The foundry TPC Components AB conducted casting trials and contributed with their wide knowledge of investment casting.
Casting trials have been performed in order to investigate the influence of different process parameters governing the fluidity of thin walled investment castings. The alloy used was CbCu7-1, i.e. the cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardening steel 17-4PH. Two levels of geometry complexity were used as well as top- and bottom gated casting systems. In the first trial, a simple slightly curved blade was cast with blade thicknesses ranging from 0.7-2.0 mm. Pouring temperature, shell temperature and blade thickness were variables in these trials. In the second trial, some features were added to the blade as well as a textured surface on one side to improve castability of a subset of the blades. Pouring temperature, pressure height and blade thickness were chosen as variables in these trials. As expected, a rather large variation in fluidity was observed. It was shown that the top gated casting system showed an overall improved fluidity compared to the bottom gated casting system for the simpler geometry. Blade thickness and pouring temperature were shown to have the greatest impact on fluidity. Adding some features to the simple geometry drastically decreased the differences between the filling systems. Whereas the top filling system still showed to be dependent on process parameters, the bottom filling system showed low dependency of the selected parameters. Using a one side textured blade with thickness of 1.3 and 1.5 mm was comparable with 1.5 and 2.0 mm flat castings thus reducing weight of the thinnest sections of a steel casting. Predictions of miss-runs with simulations were shown to be in good agreement with experiments and gave valuable insight to problems in the casting trials. Differences in porosity levels were seen between the top- and bottom gated casting systems, where the former showed a larger amount of porosity. Tensile testing of the thin blades was performed and all samples had yield- and tensile strengths within specifications. However, some specimens had an area reduction below the minimum value. This could readily be explained by the occurrence of shrinkage porosities.
Besides work performed on fluidity of the cast analogy of 17-4PH, a number of other alloys not commonly used for castings today were evaluated in terms of their fluidity and were compared to 17-4PH. Before casting trials, measurements and calculations of liquidus and solidus temperatures were performed. It was shown that JETHETE 152M had the best fluidity followed by Custom 465, L0H12N4M and 17-4PH. CSS 42L and PH13-8M ranked worst in the fluidity comparison and were therefore excluded from further investigations. Mechanical testing at both ambient and elevated temperatures was performed and it was shown from that all alloys met the demands of tensile strength. However, JETHETE 152M was later excluded due to its corrosion properties. In the corrosion test, at 400 degrees Celsius, for 100 hours with salt spray fog, it was determined that the 17-4PH and L0H12N4M showed similar corrosion rate with minimal differences. Wettability test performed on two different shell systems with 17-4PH showed that the shell/alloy system is important to consider during filling of thin sections. However, after a thorough consideration, taking into account other aspects, such as stiffness, weld ability and machinability, it was concluded that the cast analogy of 17-4PH was the most suitable alloy. Therefore, this alloy was used in the casting trials of a demonstrator. It was demonstrated during the casting trials that filling of a wide flat section with a thickness below 2 mm is hard to achieve.
Project Context and Objectives:
Overall strategy of the work plan
The overall objective for the LEAN-project was to further develop existing investment casting manufacturing method to enable casting of thinner steel components for aircraft engines. The goal was to facilitate replacement of the lighter and more expensive titanium components with investment cast steel components. Hence, the objective of the proposed project was to develop methods to manufacture high-strength, thin-walled steel castings and thus making stainless steel a viable engineering material for castings used in aerospace engine applications. The overall strategy to reach the goal was to work both with a currently used steel alloy and at the same time explore other steel alloys which are not commonly cast today. The cast analogy of the stainless steel alloy 17-4PH, CbCu7-1, was chosen as the reference alloy. The work performed with 17-4PH focused on identification of process parameters that had the largest impact on the fluidity of thin walled investment castings. Within the project, different process parameters affecting the minimum wall thickness achievable and final quality and post processing methods in order to achieve desired properties investigated. Heat treatment and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) was used to improve the final properties of the castings. The possibility of using chemical milling for further reduction of wall thicknesses was also considered at the beginning of the project. The work with steel alloys not commonly cast today, focused on adopting promising steel alloys and compare them with the reference alloy in terms of both fluidity and material properties. The goal was to identify higher-strength steel alloys for aero-engine components which are possible to use at a higher service temperature than 17-4PH. The alloys for this part of the project are used today as sheet metal or as forged materials. The castability limits for the alloys were investigated through lab scale cast trials followed by metallurgical, corrosion and mechanical investigations. Finally a more complex demonstrator was cast to raise the TRL-level of the project findings.
Description of project organisation and work packages
In order to have an efficient research and development organisation, the work was divided between industry and research institutes. Swerea SWECAST (SSC) was the responsible partner in the project. Swerea SWECAST has a long history of working close to the industry in applied research projects. The Swedish investment casting foundry TPC Components AB (TPC) conducted the casting trials and contributed with their wide knowledge of investment casting. The Polish Foundry Research Institute (FRI) had all necessary equipment to conduct state of the art research in terms of materials science and material data investigations. FRI have a long history of international and multidisciplinary projects focusing on foundry technology. FRI also has the facility to conduct controlled investment casting experiments. The work was divided among the different partners into different work packages and sub tasks along with responsible organisation as follows:
• WP1, Project management (SSC)
• WP2, Minimise section thickness of the steel alloy 17-4PH (SSC)
o Task 2.1 Investment casting of simple geometries
o Task 2.2 Investment casting of complex geometry
o Task 2.3 Post-processing of investment castings
• WP3, Castability limit for other steel alloys (FRI)
o Task 3.1 Casting of selected alloys with simple geometries
o Task 3.2 Final casting of selected alloys with complex geometry
Project management, technical coordination, information, communication of project and dissemination of research results were carried out in WP1. WP1 was the single point of contact for communication with topic management (TM) according to a communication plan set by TM and SSC. WP1 was also responsible for economy, milestones, results, and effects on short and long term. The main project leader was responsible for the information and communication strategy. The objectives of WP1 were to secure that the work progressed and to report the progress and any deviations from the work plan. The results were communicated from WP1 to TM.
The overall goal in WP2 was to explore, characterise, and push the minimum castable section thickness of 17-4PH steel to its limit. The objectives for WP2 can be summarised as follows:
• Optimise the casting conditions on simple geometries based on casting trials and numerical simulation.
• Develop and validate a reliable simulation methodology for thin walled steel investment castings
• Validate optimal casting conditions on a more complex model
• Investigate casting quality requirements, defects, material properties of thin walled steel investment castings
• Explore the possibilities of post processing operations like HIP and Chemical Milling on thin walled steel castings
The works in WP2 focused on identification and optimise the governing parameters for fluidity in thin walled investment castings. CbCu7-1, the cast analogy of 17-4PH was chosen as alloy. Fluidity, defects and mechanical properties of the thin sections were investigated. Additional post processing methods, such as Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), were also investigated as a possibility to reduce potential porosity. The work was based on a series of carefully planned Design of Experiments (DoE) to facilitate statistical evaluations of the results. Both single effects as well as interaction between effects of different process parameters were studied. The casting trials were performed under production conditions in an investment casting foundry. Two levels of geometry complexity were used as well as top and bottom gated inlet systems. First, a simple slightly curved blade was used to identify and study parameters related to the fluidity. Later, some features were added to the blade to increase its complexity. Also in an attempt to decrease the weight of the thin sections, a non-flat surface was evaluated. As the properties after heat treatment of the castings are of major importance in depth studies were performed, defect levels and mechanical performance of the thin sections were taken into account. The work in WP2 was divided into three different tasks, where Task 2.1 and 2.2 focused on minimising the wall thickness and task 2.3 focused on post processing methods.
The overall goal of WP3 was to explore the castability limits of steel alloys that are not commonly cast today. The objectives of WP3 were:
• Evaluate and rank the castability of wrought steel alloys for simple geometries
• Develop optimised casting process parameters for selected alloys
• Develop optimum heat treatment parameters for selected alloys
• Evaluate the castability of selected alloys in complex geometries
CbCu7-1, the cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardening steel 17-4PH was fully investigated in WP2. The main objective of WP3 was to evaluate and rank the castability of at least 3 wrought steel alloys not commonly used today as cast material and compare them with CbCu7-1. The work in WP3 was divided into two different tasks. Task 3.1 focused on ranking and optimising the castability of selected alloys. The alloy selection process was conducted in collaboration with the TM. This work also focused on the final properties of the castings, i.e. the development of heat treatment parameters, taking defects into account and investigating corrosion, gasification and wetting properties. The goal was to condense the number of alloys by excluding the worst performing alloy after each test. In Task 3.2 these optimised conditions were applied by casting a thin walled demonstrator of the most promising alloy.
Project Results:
WP1- Project management
WP1 was focused on project management, technical management, technical coordination, information and communication of project and dissemination of research results. WP1 was the single point of contact for communication with Topic Manager (TM) according to a communication plan set by TM and WP1. The objectives of WP1 were to secure that the work was making progress and to report the progress and any deviations from the work plan. The project results were communicated from this work package to TM and the Clean Sky Office.
WP2 - Minimize section thickness of steel alloy 17-4PH
Task 2.1 - Investment casting of simple geometries
A literature survey was fist conducted to give a solid base for the choice of relevant process parameters for the DoE. The result from the survey revealed that thin walled investment castings have been a research interest for a long time. The main conclusions from the survey of thin walled investment castings are summarised below:
• A distinction is made between flowability and fillability depending on which mechanism is reducing the ability of the metal to flow. Fillability is related to surface tension and flowability is controlled by heat transfer.
• Fluidity is improved by increasing super heat, mould temperature or pressure head.
• Fluidity is influenced by changes in alloy composition.
• Flow rate and shell permeability are also important parameters that will influence fluidity.
• Vacuum-assisted casting and vibrating are methods that have been presented in literature to further increase fluidity in thin sections.
At the same time, an additional literature survey was performed which focused on the properties of precipitation-hardened cast steel. Also calculations of properties were performed in JMatPro. The main conclusions from this survey can be concluded as follows:
• The final properties can be tailored in detail by fine-tuning alloy composition and heat treatment, even though the result is very sensitive to small changes in production environment.
• Copper was found to be the alloying element that has the most pronounced effect on fluidity in terms of viscosity and surface tension.
• Above the upper limit for cast Cb7Cu-1 (Cu>3%) might cause problems with precipitation control, mechanical properties and welding.
In the experimental work in Task 2.1 two different levels of complexity were used, both shown in figure 1. The terminology of the different levels from here on will be Simple Geometry 1 and Simple Geometry 2, where the latter had an increased level of complexity. It was decided to use both the standard casting procedure, top down pouring, as well as bottom up pouring. All trials were performed under production like conditions. Ceramic moulds were produced, following standard foundry procedures, by continuously dipping and stuccoing the wax assemblies until the desired thickness of the shells were achieved. Due to company secrets no information about the recipe of the slurries used for the shelling can be made public. After the investments had dried they were placed in an industrial autoclave for de-waxing. After subsequent sintering had been accomplished to harden the shells, they were preheated in a push-through furnace for a minimum of two hours before molten steel was poured into the mould. CbCu7-1, cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardened steel 17-4PH was used for the casting trials. Before casting trials, thermal analysis was carried out to establish the liquidus temperature of the alloy as well as the chemical analysis. The chemical composition of the alloy is shown in table 1. Filming the pouring process continuously from start to end for all trials was done by conventional DVD-recorder as well as IR-FLIR instrument.
For Simple Geometry 1 a slightly curved blade was used, with the dimensions of 100 x 150 mm in width and height respectively. Four different thicknesses between 0.7 and 2.0 mm were used. A standard four armed runner system was used for both filling systems. A 10 ppi filter was placed in the pouring cup for both the bottom and top gated casting system. Process parameters for Simple Geometry 1 were chosen based on the literature survey. Besides thickness, pouring and mould temperature were chosen as the primary parameters and varied in two levels. The flow rate in these trials was assumed as constant due to the filter position at the cup. The test plan amounted to a total of 128 castings trials. However, since each tree consisted of all four thicknesses, the number of poured trees was reduced to 32. All shells were placed in the same position in all trials i.e. same blade dimension was pointing towards the ladle for all trees poured. Figure 2 is illustrating the casting trials for Simple Geometry 1. To a larger extent resemble the GKN geometry from the proposal a boss was added at the center of the blade for Simple Geometry 2. Based on the casting trials for Simple Geometry 1, the blade with thickness of 0.7 mm was excluded since it was shown to be impossible to fill. The blades were attached to a downsprue via a three armed runner system. The runner system was designed to facilitate inlets to the blade at three different locations. No filter was used in this series of casting trials. As the main goal for Simple Geometry 2 was to further narrow the process window it was decided to vary pouring temperature and pressure head in three different levels. The variation of pressure head was only possible for the bottom gated casting system. In the trials for Simple Geometry 2, the mould temperature was assumed to be constant as the blades were insulated with K-Wool. All shells were pre-heated to 1050°C. No filters were used in these trials.
Both bottom and top gated runner systems were used. As for previous trials, the casting was performed under production like conditions. Each set up was repeated three times. Besides these trials also trials with a non-smooth (textured) surface were evaluated in terms of fluidity. In all trials the response of fluidity were evaluated as the projected area of the partly filled blades by means of digital image processing according to figure 3.
Nova Flow&Solid was used as the primary simulation code and was used extensively throughout the project. The objective was to develop a simulation methodology of a generic type to be used for miss-run predictions of steel investment castings. Also, equally important, was that the simulations facilitated defect tracking in a realistic way. A lot of effort was therefore devoted in identification and adjustment of the simulation parameters.
Because one of the major findings in the literature survey was the improved effects on fluidity using vacuum assisted casting, it was decided to evaluate this technique. The purpose is to create a pressure difference which will aid the filling of thin sections and small narrow features. The principle is equivalent to increasing the pressure height. The system consisted of three parts, one casting tank in which the shell is placed, one vacuum tank and a vacuum ejector. The basic idea of the pressure system was that the ejector should be used to decrease the pressure in the vacuum tank before casting. The shell was then placed in the casting tank. The valve between the casting tank and the de-pressurized vacuum tank was then released during filling to get a quick decrease in pressure in the casting chamber while the vacuum ejector was used to maintain the low pressure during the whole casting sequence.
Task 2.2 - Investment casting of complex geometries
The results from Task 2.1 were taken as input to perform more complex castings with even thinner wall thickness. For simplicity, a combination of the geometry used for the casting trials for Simple Geometry 2 with a one side texture surface was used. Simulations were performed to decide the optimal parameter set up to be used for the casting trials. In these trials special considerations were taken to the feeding during solidification to reduce the defect level in the casting. The feeding was accomplished by adding wedges at one side of the blade, see figure 4. The size and positions were based on numerical simulations. Two castings were mounted on a two armed gating system with the same dimensions as in previous trials. A bottom gated casting system with a sprue height of 300 mm was used. The manufacturing of wax patterns and shells followed the same procedure as in Task 2.1 see figure 5. CbCu7-1, cast analogy of the stainless precipitation-hardening steel 17-4PH was used for the casting trials. Insulation of the thin sections was used to decrease the temperature drop during the time from removal from the pre-heating furnace to pouring. Within the frame of the project, a demonstrator of the GKN geometry was cast. The wax patterns were produced at FRI and shipped to TPC for shelling and casting. The inlet and gating system were designed at TPC. The shell manufacturing followed the same procedure as previous and CbCu7-1 was used as alloy.
Task 2.3 - Post-processing of investment castings
The possibility to further improving the final quality of the resulting castings by post-processing was investigated in Task 2.3. Among several possible methods, Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) was chosen as the most promising technique. The fabrication of investment castings is prone to residual internal defects, resulting in a reduction of fatigue strength and creep resistance, but also in an increased scatter in mechanical data. HIP treatment of the casting, a method known as casting densification, can increase the average level of these properties significantly and reduce the statistical scatter. The method can be used to remove gas porosity as well as shrinkage porosity. Investment castings for HIP trials were produced at TPC using a bottom up pouring system and a blade thickness of 2 mm. The HIP was performed at FRI using a pressure of 1500 bar and a temperature of 1180°C for five hours. Porosity evaluation by X-ray images and 3D X-ray tomography was performed on the castings before and after HIP for comparison. Tensile testing of the blades which were subjected to HIP treatment was compared to the non-HIP treated samples. Also the dimensional changes of HIP treated blades were investigated.
Conclusions WP2
In the statistical evaluation the projected area of the blades was used as a measure of fluidity. Generally, the top gated casting system showed a larger degree of filling compared to bottom gated system for Simple Geometry 1. The pouring temperature followed by the thickness had the largest impact on fluidity for the top gated system while the opposite behaviour was shown for the bottom gated system. Both the pouring temperature and the thickness had larger impact on fluidity for the top gated system compared to the bottom gated system. For Simple Geometry 2 the differences between top- and bottom gated casting systems showed only minor differences in filling. However, the top filling system was shown to be much more sensitive to chosen process parameters than the bottom filling casting system. The top filling system also showed a somewhat larger scatter in the fluidity results compared to the bottom filling system. For the top filling system the pouring temperature and the filling time showed to be the most important parameters. The bottom filling system showed only minor or no influence on the chosen parameters. By using a one side textured side of the blades it was shown that the thickness could be reduced for the same fluidity which corresponds to a weight reduction for minimum thickness panels of 15-20%.
The filling results of the Complex Geometry showed a complete filling of all castings. X-ray investigation of the blades showed that the defects in the thin sections had been heavily decreased. However, some minor cracks and surface defects could be observed in the castings.
Miss-runs were observed for casting trials of the 1/16 part demonstrator cast at TPC Components AB. This could however be attributed to a deviation in section thickness. The measured thickness at the edge of the miss-run was in the range of 1.0 to 1.3 mm instead of the nominal 2.0 mm. The assisted vacuum casting experiments failed because enough low pressure was not achieved. This could be attributed to an excessive leakage. The problem was identified to the sealing between the casting chamber and the lid.
Penetrant testing showed large differences between top and bottom gated castings with respect to the amount of large pores close to the surface for Simple Geometry 1. Average porosity area of the heat-treated samples varied from 2‰ for the bottom gated system to almost 10‰ for the top gated system. The larger pores were examined with SEM, which indicated a shrinkage mechanism. CT scanning of the blades showed a substantially larger porosity level for the top gated 2 mm blades at high pouring temperature compared to the bottom gated blades. But for the lower pouring temperature no difference was observed. Heat treatment had a drastic effect on microstructure with respect to morphology, grain size and amount of delta-ferrite. The amount of delta-ferrite in the bulk samples was heavily decreased upon heat treatment. In thin heat-treated sections, the amount of delta-ferrite decreased further due to different temperature response during cooling. There was no difference between top and bottom gated samples with respect to grain size or delta-ferrite. Also the resulting hardness was above the minimum requirements for ASTM A747A standard. The 17-4 PH castings from the trials in Simple Geometry 2 were heat treated following the specifications for condition H1025 in the aero standard ASM 5343E. The expected martensitic micro-structure was obtained. A total of sixteen principally equivalent samples were tested for tensile properties. All samples had a yield and tensile strength equal to or above the minimum value according to the AMS 5343E standard. Four samples, however, had an area reduction below the minimum value. This could readily be explained by the occurrence of shrinkage porosity within the material.
Miss-run predictions and defect tracking was shown to be possible with simulations to a high degree of confidence for all geometries including the demonstrator. Accurate material properties for both the alloy and shell are however needed. Also, the knowledge of the correct temperature profile for the shell at the time of pouring was also shown to be important.
For the HIP treated blades the internal porosity level decreased considerably, as was shown by 3D X-ray tomography. The resulting material therefore shows less scatter in tensile properties compared to material that was not HIP treated. The amount of delta-ferrite in the microstructure was decreased due to the HIP process. This is a result of the extended homogenisation of the material during high temperature cycle and is generally believed to beneficial for the tensile properties of the material. It might be possible to improve the material properties of HIP treated 17-4 PH by optimising the total heat treatment process, increasing the HIP temperature or the temperature of the ageing step, thereby decreasing the yield strength and increasing the ductility of the heat-treated material. Due to the HIP treatment some dimensional changes was observed.
WP3- Castability limit for other steel alloys
Task 3.1 - Casting of selected alloys with simple geometries
A literature survey was first conducted which was supposed to give enough information about which alloys that was shown to be the most promising ones. However, it was shown that the information in literature was inadequate. Therefore the alloys were selected by TM and the project management. The following alloys were chosen as candidates at the beginning of the project:
• 17-4PH (reference alloy)
• Custom 465
• PH13-8M
• CSS 42L
However, after discussions two additional alloys were added to the evaluation:
• JETHETE 152M
• L0H12N4M (steel commonly used in Poland)
Experimental
Fluidity tests were performed for the selected alloys under laboratory conditions. The test geometry consisted of bars with different thicknesses (2-10 mm), see figure 6 The casting was performed with a bottom gated casting system. All bars (2-10mm) were mounted on a circular bottom plate. The fluidity for each alloy was measured as the filled distance of each bar. The whole casting procedure consists of following steps:
• Furnace charging
• Melting and overheating
o Chemical composition measurement
o Chemical composition correction
• Slagging and deoxidisation
• Temperature measurement
o Final chemical composition
• Transfer of the mould to pouring stand
• Metal tapping
Chemical composition was taken for each batch and the results are shown in table 2. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used for establishing liquidus and solidus temperatures for each selected alloy. DSC was also used to measure the specific heat. Dilatometer was used to measure thermal expansion and Laser flash technique was used for thermal conductivity measurements. These thermo-physical properties were later used as input to the simulations. Also wettability, corrosion and gasification tests were performed for some of the alloys.
In the casting trials the mould temperature was held constant to a temperature of 930°C to 950°C at the moment of tapping for all alloys. However, the tapping temperature differed to some extent depending of the liquidus temperature of the alloy. A summary of the liquidus and solidus temperatures along with tapping temperatures for the alloys are presented in table 3. After casting, each alloy was heat treated and subjected to mechanical testing at both ambient and at an elevated temperature of 400°C. The heat treatment cycle differed among the alloys, see the internal report D3.2 “Documentation of first batch of cast trials”. Because each alloy differed in chemical composition also different heat treatment routes were needed for each alloy.
The results from the fluidity experiments, illustrated in figure 7 and 8, show an almost linear relation between fluidity and thickness for most of the alloys up to 4 mm. All alloys, except PH13-8M and L0H12N4M, showed an improved fluidity using a pouring height of 10cm. Even though the alloy PH13-8M was shown to have good fluidity properties it was excluded for further testing due to the need of an extremely high temperature for flowing. To get the alloy to flow properly a tapping temperature at or above 1700 °C was needed. At this temperature it is well known that the metal dissolves a lot of gases and the risk of defects thereby increases drastically. A degradation of the lining in the furnace (Al2O3) was also observed at this temperature. CSS 42L was excluded due to extremely poor fluidity properties and that the alloy was shown to be prone to hot cracking. Taking this into account the ranking from the melting- and castability experiments showed that JETHETE 152M had the best fluidity followed by Custom 465, L0H12N4M and 17-4PH.
The remaining alloys were subjected to micro-structure investigations as well as mechanical testing. After heat treatment, all alloys showed a dendrite martensitic structure with islands of delta-ferrite. The mechanical testing showed that all tested materials have a tensile strength within aero specifications. Based on these tests, JEHTETE 152M was shown to have the best mechanical properties followed by L0H12N4M, 17-4PH and Custom 465. Even if JETHETE 152M was introduced as an alternative alloy at the beginning of the project and was shown to have good fluidity and mechanical properties it was excluded for further testing because of insufficient corrosion resistance. This decision was taken in consensus at a coordinate meeting with the TM and all project partners involved. Taking all results into account and also making a simple estimation of stiffness, weldability, and machinability 17-4PH was considered as the highest ranked alloy, followed by Custom 465 and L0H12N4M.
Task 3.2 - Final casting of selected alloys with complex geometry
Additional experimental work was performed in Task 3.2 to investigate gasification and wettability of mould materials and corrosion resistance of selected alloys. The alloys tested were 17-4PH from both FRI and TPC along with L0H12N4M. Custom 465 was excluded from further analysis because of availability. The interaction of the ceramic mould and liquid alloys was investigated using a unique apparatus for high temperature studies because such phenomena as gas release, chemical reaction and wetting of mould material are responsible for porosity formation as well non-metallic inclusions in castings. Two ceramic shell systems, taken from TPC and FRI, were examined with respect to gasification. Wetting phenomenon is taking place between molten alloy and ceramic mould when the contact angle formed at the triple point melt/substrate/gas is below 90°. In figure 9 the wetting behaviour for 17-4PH from TPC and FRI are shown. As can be seen 17-4PH from TPC shows non-wetting behaviour while the alloy from FRI shows wetting. This is an additional factor affecting quality of the final castings since it is responsible for liquid metal penetration inside porous mould accompanied with its fragmentation and detachment, causing introduction of non-metallic inclusions into the melt.
Moreover, in most metal/ceramic system wetting has reactive character related with the formation of wettable reactive product at the interface. However, this effect may cause strong bonding between the mould and the casting, dimensional changes of the mould as well as local detachment of the reaction product and its introduction to solidifying alloy (“washing” effect), all contributing to the formation of casting defects. The wettability tests were performed for every combination between the shell systems used at TPC and FRI in combination with two different chemical compositions of 17-4PH (TPC and FRI) and L0H12N4M. The sessile drop method was applied for measurements of the contact angle values versus time using contact heating procedure and high-speed CCD camera with 100 fps equipped with LabView software for drop image acquisition. The wettability tests lasted for four minutes.
All investigated alloys showed high reactivity in 4-min contact with all mould materials resulting in the formation of reaction in the region under the drop. The wetting results presented in figure 10 to 12 showed that the ceramic mould material from TPC was non-wettable for all investigated alloys. Thus one may expect that this material has also lower reactivity with examined alloys. On the contrary, under identical testing conditions, the mould material from FRI showed a larger wetting tendency, compared to the ceramic shell from TPC. More detailed structural characterisation of reaction product region is needed in order to understand the mechanism of interaction between the liquid metal and the mould material.
Using the same apparatus and by the method of large drop, measurements of surface tension and density of liquid metal of 17-4PH steel alloy were performed. From these measurements a surface tension of 1560 mN/m and a density of 7.00 g/cm3 were found.
Based on the preliminary results of wettability studies the following conclusions were made:
• The best combination is: 17-4PH TPC alloy with mould from TPC
• The worse combination is: 17-4PH FRI alloy with mould from FRI
Gasification of the ceramic shells was estimated by continuous registration of the amount of residual gases using a Quadrupole spectrometer QMS 200 during heating of as received mould samples to a temperature of 1200 °C. The following parameters were recorded during the cycle from ambient temperature, heating and cooling:
• Pressure inside the chamber
• Composition of residual gases
• Temperature near the sample (inside the support)
The results from the gasification are shown in figure 13 for the shells from TPC and FRI respectively. Both types of ceramic mould materials showed gasification during heating to processing temperature, particularly from the mould delivered by TPC. However, proper preheating helps significantly reduce gas release from the moulds thus special attention should be paid to the mould treatment directly before the contact with molten alloys.
Corrosion tests were performed using the same alloys as for the wettability tests for a time period of 100 hours. The corrosion tests were performed in a new developed thermo-chamber using a saline atmosphere. The corrosion tests continued for 100 hours at a temperature of 400°C in a chamber with an atmosphere containing a 5% salt fog. The following materials were subjected to the corrosion test.
• 17-4PH from TPC
• 17-4PH from FRI
• LOHI2 from FRI
It was clear from these tests that the salt fog accelerates corrosion for all studied samples. The alloy with the lowest observed corrosion rate was L0H12N4M, even if the difference was small. The formed oxide surface during the test consisted of iron oxide (FeO) with small quantity of Cr (6-16%).
After laboratory testing the aim was to cast a demonstrator of the GKN geometry given in the proposal. It was decided to carry out the casting in two stages by first casting 1/16 and later 1/4 of the full casting. The geometries are illustrated in figure 14. The thin sections of the GKN casting had a nominal thickness of 2.0 mm. Due to a combination between accessibility and taking all properties into account it was decided to use 17-4PH as cast alloy. The chemical composition of the alloy is shown in table 4. Before casting, excessive work was carried out designing the inlet and gating system. This was accomplished using MagmaSOFT and FLOW3D. The material data used in the simulations were compiled from both experimental measurements and calculations in JMatPro. From the simulations it was shown that important factors for filling thin walled investment casting are among several; mould temperature, pouring temperature, satisfactory venting of the cavity for good gas evacuation and providing laminar flow of metal during filling. The final inlet system for the 1/16 casting is illustrated in figure 15, which is based on the simulation results in figure 16. The inlet system and ceramic shell for the 1/4 GKN casting is illustrated in figure 17.
Silicon rubber was used as tooling material for the wax patterns. This method is used for prototype making to prevent high costs of metal tools and allows for manufacturing about a dozen of wax patterns. According to the designed concept, separate wax models were connected to a gating and feeding system. This part of manufacturing was performed manually. Ceramic moulds were produced by consecutive dipping and stuccoing the wax assemblies until the desired thickness of the shell was achieved. Due to FRI secrets no information about the recipe of the slurries used can be made public. After the investment the shells were left to dry and later subjected to de-waxing in an industrial autoclave. After the subsequent sintering had been accomplished to harden the shells they were preheated and ready to be poured. The shells were placed in a metal container and the shells were surrounded by sand, see figure 18. This served two purposes. Firstly the surrounding sand gave support to the shell and thereby decreased the risk of shell cracking during filling and solidification. Secondly, the surrounding sand also served as an extra insulation which minimised the temperature drop of the shell during transport from the furnace to the pouring area. The process parameters used in the casting trials were finally decided to:
• Mould temperature: 950 °C
• Tapping temperature: 1650 °C
Miss-runs were present in the 1/16 of the demonstrator as can be seen in figure 19. None of the castings had a complete fill. Miss-runs were seen at different locations of the thin parts of the casting. It was also obvious from the results that the design of the inlet system resulted in that two melt fronts met at an outer edge, a position with a high potential of miss-runs. In figure 20, a comparison between X-ray computer tomography and defect simulation is presented for the 1/16 of the demonstrator casting. The casting of the 1/4 of the demonstrator was also unsuccessful, see figure 21. During filling effects of gas explosions were observed indicating that a high degree of moisture was left in the shell during filling. A main factor responsible for successful filling of thin-walled investment castings seems to be castability of the alloy. There are several factors which influence alloy castability and not all of them have been investigated during this project.
In investment casting, there are basic factors which should be controlled during the process, most of them are temperature parameters but also such factors as air humidity, chemical composition, ceramic shell parameters and the presence of oxides or impurities should be taken into account. Anyway, casting of thin-walled castings from steel alloys is till now not quite recognized and still requires additional investigations and both practical and simulation based experiments (in the range of gating and feeding system configurations to ensure a laminar flow of melt into cavity). Information relating to case studies is still poor. Performed simulations gives only a picture of some parts of the process, but a wide range of input parameters should be confirmed since confrontation with real results often require a lot of practical corrections.
The cast element made from the certified 17-4PH alloy was examined for the structure homogeneity after heat treatment according to table 5. The samples collected from different parts of the element (1/16 of the whole demonstrator) were examined by metallographic technique, see figure 22. The metallographic observations confirmed the homogeneity of the sample micro-structure, which consisted of a delta ferrite embedded in a martensitic matrix with some non-metallic inclusions.
Conclusion WP3
• Wall thickness limits which guarantee obtaining of good casting were observed during trials of thin-walled castings made from 17-4 PH alloy, thickness below 2 mm is not fully realisable
• CT X-ray tomography is a very helpful tool for identification of internal defects (porosity, discontinues), especially in thin-walled castings
• Best performance was observed for 17-4 PH alloy and ceramic mould made from used in TPC material (company secret)
• Gas release during the casting process may cause the formation of porosity in the castings
• HIP treatment improves mechanical properties and reduces porosity in ready castings, but also causes slightly dimensional deviations
• Despite that first demonstrator trials did not give positive results is advisable to continuing the investigations to obtain a good thin-walled casting from steel alloys like 17-PH
Potential Impact:
Today, most investment castings for aerospace applications are produced outside of the European Union. Also most knowledge of the investment casting technique is found outside of the EU, primarily in the United States.
An important outcome from the project is a general increase in knowledge of the investment casting technique within the European Union and detailed knowledge of casting thin-walled durable steel castings using the investment casting technique. As a consequence, European foundries will be able to supply end users, e.g. the aerospace industry, with light-weight high-performing steel castings.
The economic and environmental demands on the aviation industry require energy efficient aero engines. To withstand the increasing operating temperatures required for higher fuel efficiency levels, while maintaining low weight, expensive titanium cast components are often used in critical parts of the aero engine. If the same level of material performance can be maintained using cast steel components, massive cost savings are possible.
Enabling a more cost efficient manufacturing of the aero engine makes it feasible to replace other components in the air craft with higher performing materials, which in turn would result to an overall decrease in the weight of the air craft. The effect of the weight reduction is a large decrease in overall fuel usage during the air craft’s usage cycle.
List of Websites:
Contact details to partisipants:
Below contact information to all the partners in the project is provided:
Swerea SWECAST (Coordinator)
Postal address: P.O. Box 2033, SE-550 02 Jönköping, Sweden
Visitors address: Tullportsgatan 3, SE-553 22 Jönköping, Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)36 30 12 00
www.swereaswecast.se
Martin Risberg (Project Coordinator)
Phone: +46 (0)36 30 12 62
Mail: martin.risberg@swerea.se
Mats Holmgren (Manger director)
Phone: +46 (0)36 30 12 01
Mail: mats.holmgren@swerea.se
TPC Components AB (Partner)
Postal address: P.O. Box 517, SE-734 27 Hallstahammar, Sweden
Visitors address: Brånstaleden 2, SE-734 32 Hallstahammar, Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)220 219 00
www.tpcab.se/eng/
Mohsin Raza (Project contact)
Phone: +46 (0)220 219 32
Mail: mohsin.raza@tpcab.se
Mark Irwin (Manger director)
Phone: +46 (0)220 219 01
Mail: mark.irwin@tpcab.se
Instytut Odlewnictwa (Partner)
Address: ul. Zakopia´nska 73, PL-30-418 Kraków, Poland
Phone: +48 12 26 18 324
www.iod.krakow.pl
Jacek Przybylski (Project contact)
Phone: +48 12 26 18 372
Mail: jprzyb@iod.krakow.pl
Jerzy Sobczak (Manger director)
Phone: +48 12 26 18 324
Mail: sobczak@iod.krakow.pl
