Prediction of the internal soundness of the castings directly on the production line. Importance of quality variations

The use of powerful computers has led to develop complex solidification simulation software that go beyond the use of Chorinov rules. Nevertheless, despite of this huge advance in the comprehension of solidification phenomena the problem has not been solved completely. Some remaining residual soundness scrap appear randomly after production, giving rise to an expensive unitary control to detect the castings that do not fulfill the quality requirements. This extra control generates a lack of productivity, extra cost, etc.

The use of commercial solidification software cannot predict the variations on metallurgical quality during production, and this is the reason why unexpected micro shrinkages appear in some castings.

With the aim to solve this important problem a new tool coupling the thermal evolution and the measurement of metallurgical quality in the production line has been developed providing an instantaneous picture about castings’ soundness.