Concurrent Product and Process Development Using Casting Process Simulation

In today's global competitive environment, the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are forced to introduce new products in a relatively short turnaround time and the products are required to be custom designs and developed in a concurrent engineering environment. Concurrent Product and Process Development (CPPD) using Casting Process Simulation brings agility to new product and process design and development.

The current computer aided technologies have enabled metal casters to understand and apply physics behind mold filling, solidification, and microstructure evolution. The commercially available tools allow to simulate most of the conventional casting processes such as sand, plaster molded, investment, permanent mold and die casting. Using this technology, castings are virtually made on computer before any hard tooling is made. Case study on cast component product development is presented. A brief description about the use and effectiveness of Casting Process Modeling for the development of the new casting processes such as Semi Solid Molding is discussed.