For Brazilian faucet and shower specialist Docol, sustainability is an integral part of their corporate policy. To actively contribute to environmental protection in this area, the company decided to use numerical simulation with Magmasoft. The following example shows how virtual simulation enabled Docol to reduce the scrap rate in the production of a single-lever mixer. Figure 1a shows the "Lift" mixer, whose body is cast from a copper-zinc alloy in a low-pressure casting process. The cast part systematically showed hot tears in the rear area, which affected the surface of the part, (Fig. 1c). Hot tears occur at the end of solidification, usually run along grain boundaries, and the fracture surface is intercrystallin. This formation mechanism can often be recognized from the shape of the crack, which is "jagged" in the finished part, (Fig. 1d).
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