AFS research continues to focus on needs of U.S. foundry industry.

High-level programs and projects seek to improve metalcasters' competitive position in domestic and foreign markets.

Through its vast committee structure, AFS continues to develop and sponsor research to help U.S. foundries become more productive, technologically advanced and competitive in the global marketplace.

The AFS Research Board has been working with the Society's 11 technical divisions (consisting of 93 committees) over the past six years to identify and prioritize the industry's most crucial needs. Overall, the board has determined that research programs and projects should fulfill four objectives to provide the most benefit to U.S. metalcasters:

Markets--research that expands cast component markets and applications, further diversifying and stabilizing the metalcasting industry.

Productivity--research that maximizes the production efficiency of a foundry; programs that improve total metal yield and reduce casting rework are of major importance.

Environmental--research to reduce foundry operations' impact on the environment.

Technology transfer (education)--research that includes plans to transfer technology and effectively educate industry segments affected by the results.

With these objectives in mind, the board has pinpointed program priorities in:

* lead-time reduction;

* casting consistency;

* emissions identification;

* design properties;

* alternate processes;

* technology transfer.

Following is a brief discussion of the proposed research programs.

Lead-Time Reduction

Foundries and their customers have indicated that long lead times prevent castings from being used in new component designs. Major causes of long lead times include tooling construction, process development and production time.

Consequently, designers often consider castings as a last resort when a prototype design requires quick approval. If the prototype design is produced as a machined part or fabrication, it becomes difficult to convert the design into a cast production component.

Research and development must address several areas to overcome long lead times. AFS has identified these needs as integrating software design and casting tools; incorporating rapid prototyping of new component designs as castings; and benchmarking existing methods to reveal production bottlenecks.

"We should take advantage of the rapid prototyping techniques because the product of this process begins as a casting," said Dan Twarog, AFS director of research.

Additional work in post-casting processing (such as welding, grinding and rework) not only will cut lead time but increase a foundry's productivity.

Casting Consistency

Since design are engineers are concerned about casting consistency, research must find ways to improve the internal and external quality of castings overall and from part to part.

Programs that develop methods of predicting and/or quantifying the internal soundness and level of anomolies in castings have been identified as high-interest areas. Better dimensional control and surface imperfection reduction would help improve the external consistency of castings.

"A key area of research would be to devise techniques for producing and delivering clean metal to the casting cavity," Twarog said. "The ability to test 'real time' the material's quality before pouring will reduce defective castings."

Of particular interest to the industry are programs that address methods for evaluating and producing clean, high-quality, thin-walled cast components. High-priority projects include: evaluating melt cleanliness before pouring; techniques for clean castings through metal filtration; "novel" pouring methods; and upgrading available information on recommended practices for metal delivery system design.

Programs for dimensional control and repeat ability within tight tolerances will contribute substantially to the foundry industry's progress. Molding processes that have typical tolerance recognition are extremely conservative in their capabilities prediction.

"Identifying the true capabilities of each process and the key variables controlling them will dramatically improve designers' perception of castings and the attainable dimensional accuracies," Twarog said. "The industry also would benefit from the development of comparative dimensional data on new casting processes."

In-process quality testing methods, causes of penetration defects and process sensor development are projects that would improve the industry's ability to produce quality, dimensionally controllable castings.

Emissions Identification

Stiffer laws and regulations have placed emissions identification and control high on the research needs list.

Programs that address recycling, treatment and/or reduction technologies for all types of foundry emissions and solid wastes are critical.

The first step must be to identify and characterize the major process materials that contribute to emission problems. After this, research would focus on ways to control, substitute or eliminate these process materials (binders or additives).

Design Properties

Although cast components have been used for many years, developing specific properties for them has proved difficult.

Because of this, designers have used case histories of comparative components as guidelines for new designs. This "design by analogy" method has limited their ability to consider major changes in basic design features.

Lack of designer education, minimal casting design property data and long lead times all contribute to reducing casting use in new designs.

However, more advance designers are developing cast metal components by finite element modeling interfaced with CAD/CAM programs. These techniques require cast metal property inputs, making casting property data bases an integral need of designers.

AFS' research program recognizes that such data bases--with information on all commonly used materials--must be developed for casting designers.

"The development of design property data bases," Twarog said, "is the beginning information required for much needed design manuals."

Alternate Processes

Research into alternative process technologies which increase cast component design applications, reduce foundries' environmental risks, improve metal yield and decrease casting manufacturing costs is important.

Alternate casting processes with potential include lost foam/expendable pattern casting (EPC), copper-based permanent mold, squeeze casting aluminum and counter-gravity pouring of all metals.

Many foundries and designers consider TABULAR DATA OMITTED the lost foam/EPC process a viable method to increase markets for castings. Since knowledge of this process remains deficient, research should target several key areas--tooling material and design, gating system configurations, fill and compaction cycles, and coating formulations.

Permanent mold casting of copper alloys has been a primary method to produce castings in Europe, but this technology has not found widespread use in the U.S.

Since government regulations eventually will reduce the lead level in copper alloys, many green sand, copper alloy foundries are interested in developing the permanent mold process to copper alloys because of its success in non-lead alloys.

Research into the effective and economical application of squeeze casting and counter-gravitational methods also would create new application opportunities for the American foundry industry. Since both methods receive high marks in high strength and quality, the AFS Research Board believes further development and improvement are needed.

Technology Transfer (Education)

New mechanisms must be employed to reach the many small and medium-sized foundries that don't participate in research activities because of cost or distance.

"Developing new ways to teach technology to the industry and its customers is required," Twarog said. "Electronic bulletin boards and visual image transmission are two of the more promising approaches to linking technology with foundries."

Electronically transferring technology to mechanical engineers and designers would help the foundry industry communicate its capabilities. However, there is a shortage of published information on the capabilities, design and use of castings. It is now more important than ever to collect, standardize and publish data to encourage designers to use castings.

Finally, technology transfer to designers should be exploited by using the national Manufacturing Technology Centers (MTC). These government-funded organizations help small and medium-sized companies in various ways--such as how to identify and select the best method for producing a component.

Metalcasting information must be given to the national MTCs so they can pass it onto the manufacturers they are assisting.