The use of Metal Treatment to control the quality of an Aluminium casting produced by the High Pressure Diecasting Process

摘要

The High Pressure Diecasting process is very attractive to the casting buyer, offering fast production rates coupled to optimised production costs. As castings become more complex and wall sections become heavier so the advantage of the very rapid cooling rate is reduced and casting defects more commonly seen in gravity diecasting and sand casting are now being experienced. The need to heat treat and weld castings also means that casting quality levels must be improved. A fresh approach to the treatment of the Aluminium melt is therefore required and this paper describes the design of a test piece and a test programme to examine the influence that metal treatment can have on casting quality. Simulation is used in the design of the test piece and various non-destructive tests are used to measure the quality of the Aluminium melt, prior to casting. Finally X-Ray, SEM and image analysis and mechanical testing are used to assess the quality of the resulting castings.