The influence of some selected process parameters on the filling behavior of the Evaporative Pattern Casting (EPC) A356 alloys in relatively thin section plates of 0.2 cm (0.08 in.) and 0.3cm (0.12 in.) in thickness were investigated in this study. The results indicate that the filling behavior of the EPC A356 alloy occurs mainly by a sequential mode. Regarding the gating system evaluated, the results show that there is not much difference in filling length among the gating systems of T-S-H, W-W-V and S-T-V, while the average filling lengths of the bottom- gated system, i.e., S-B-V, are the lowest among the four gating systems studied. Varying the in gate dimensions but maintaining a constant cross section results in little effect on pattern fillability. In addition, the fillability is impaired moderately by increasing the coating thickness from 0.2mm to 0.4mm, but is drastically improved by the application of a vacuum. Furthermore, the fillability of the EPC A356 alloy in those relatively thin section plates was calculated based upon the previously derived flow solidification equation. The theoretically calculated results have been found in good agreement with the experimental results obtained in this study.
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