Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Resource Minimized Casting by Development of a Modular Moulding Box System

Exploitable results

The main goal of the Remicast project was to improve the competitive capability of foundries. This was achieved by developing the completely new technology to cast propellers. Basically, the technology is revolutionary: to manufacture cast parts without patterns by using special mould blocks. The two types of moulding box systems were developed. Although there were problems of using the graphite moulds, the quality of the cast propeller was very high. The advantages of the process are therefore unquestionable: allowance free castings with excellent surface quality. However, the mould tends to crack due the stresses caused by solidification and oxidization of the graphite. Unfortunately, during the first tests the mould lasted only few castings. Especially, the problems concentrated on the areas where casting piece had sharp edges. After these results it was decided that the most important issues for development is the improve durability of the mould blocks and prevent the oxidization. So far, the tests with different coatings and ceramic parts have proved that the cracking tendency can be prevented. New material grade was developed for the process. This was achieved by performing extensive trials. During the trials the thermal properties were measured. The material parameters were defined with a special program, which can calculate the parameters from the actual measurements. This inverse heat conduction procedure is a problem of calculating the boundary conditions (the external heat transfer "the cause") for given observation(s) of the temperature history at one or more interior points. Then the new graphite grade was utilized in the developed moulding box system. The system were optimized to endure stresses and deformations of the process. Stress and deformation calculations proved that sharp edges in the design will increase stress levels. With the modified design it is possible significantly reduce stresses in the mould.

Searching for OpenAIRE data...

There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE

No results available