High performance cast parts. Advanced feeding systems for metallurgical optimization

Foundry sector, as a whole, has incorporated relevant technological advances into productive processes. Nevertheless, the specific field of feeding system design criteria hasn’t improved in the same proportion. The use of simulation tools doesn’t always come together with the optimization of key indicators. Part rework costs remain unchanged, yield values hardly reach 50% and the metallurgy of the processed alloys is kept under nearly unchangeable principles. With this starting point, a deep review of the feeding systems that are employed for the manufacture of cast steel components is carried out, to lead in the end, to the identification and assessment of the metallurgical advantages that can be exploited in the most thermally affected zones and to the net/gross yield optimization. A complex variable matrix has been defined and studied, taking into consideration high added value materials, their metallurgy both in liquid and solid state, novel feeding devices such as core-risers, riser-paddings and EXACTCASTTM (patented) mini-risers, and advanced simulation concepts. The most important achieved results are exposed which, taking advantage of the new feeding technologies, allow reaching yields over 75%, with an optimized metallurgical quality in the final product.