Thermal fluid/solidification analysis of automobile part by horizontal squeeze casting process and experimental evaluation

doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2003.11.005

Journal of Materials Processing Technology

Volume 146, Issue 3, 10 March 2004, Pages 294-302

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2003.11.005 Get rights and content

Abstract

The squeeze casting process of molten metal is very attractive for producing near net shape components with an arbitrary complicated shape. It is particularly attractive for processing engine mounting brackets with high strength at desired elongation and hardness, since the porosity of dispersed defects under the action of the pressure is remarkably reduced during squeeze casting. Therefore, to develop suspension parts, such as the knuckle, arm, and structure parts to support the automobile engine, the squeeze casting process was developed with die design and process parameter control.

Introduction

Particularly, squeeze casting has many advantages such as porosity reduction, improvement of mechanical properties, and the manufacturing of near net shape. Therefore, the squeeze casting process has recently been applied investigating the fabrication possibilities of automobile parts, which satisfies the high strength requirements and the desired elongation.

Furthermore, the squeeze casting technique appears to be most effective in that it offers the following two advantages: (1) good suitability for mass production and (2) a relatively simple process for manufacturing near net shape complicated parts. Because of its considerable relevance to production of automobile parts, numerous studies on squeeze casting process have been published. Sugimura et al. [1] introduced mechanism of porosity in terms of realization of the die casting process with local squeezing parts. Adachi et al. [2] studied the process parameters of AC4CH alloy to investigate the effect of microstructure and mechanical properties of the squeeze casting process. Fujii et al. [3] investigated the solidification phenomenon of squeeze cast Al–Si alloy and AC8A by measuring and calculating temperature changes of the mold and casting in component with gravity casting. The heat transfer coefficient between casting alloys and mold was also investigated. Nishimoto et al. [4] reported on the chemical composition of materials, the gating system, and the squeeze casting condition to develop the rear axle housing by using the vertical squeeze casting process.

To apply engine bracket mountings fabricated by the squeeze casting process for automobile parts, the vertical pressure die casting process has been developed, which is expected to have high accuracy [5]. The mechanical properties of the fabricated squeeze casting process were compared with those of the gravity process. Iwata et al. [6] performed research, which was based on pressure measurement during squeeze casting, to investigate the relationship between shrinkage cavity and pressure transfer time in the squeeze casting of Al–Si alloys.

Recently, to develop a front knuckle part, the squeeze casting process was applied to automobile part industries [7].

The squeeze casting technique has recently been applied to investigate the fabrication possibility of metal–matrix composites [8], [9]. As mentioned above, previous investigations mainly focused on fundamental research, which was microstructure control. The reported squeeze casting process is limited when applied to the vertical type process. Therefore, in this research, the fluid phenomena and solidification analysis were performed to manufacture automobile parts by using the horizontal squeeze casting process. The effect of the fabricating condition on the mechanical properties and solidification phenomenon during squeeze casting was investigated.

However, the product that was fabricated by squeeze casting is arbitrary in the complicated near net shape part.

For application to the automobile industry, computer simulation is necessary to reduce trial and error in the developmental process for parts. Therefore, computer simulations of the die design were performed by MAGMA soft.

The gate dimension and position for the development of engine bracket mountings has been investigated with computer-aided engineering in order to propose a gate position where the weld line is irrelevant to the mechanical properties. By using the designed die with computer simulation results, the squeeze casting experiments were performed. Engine bracket mountings fabricated at various injection conditions were obtained to investigate the possibility of mass production.

Section snippets

Horizontal squeeze casting process

The schematic diagrams of the apparatus used in the horizontal squeeze casting process for engine bracket mounting parts are shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b). The controlled molten metal was poured into a heated sleeve, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The plunger moved slowly until completely filled at the sleeve and runner to avoid the air sleeve inside, as shown in Fig. 1(b) and (c). Fig. 2 shows the simulation flow chart for the squeeze casing process.

In this study, a die filling and solidification

Results and discussion

Filling rate of the sleeve calculated in this study is as follows: $filling rate of the sleeve = volume of injected melt volume of sleeve capacity = V_{in} (π/4)×d_{s} ×L = 694 386 (π/4)×70^{2} ×397 =45%$ where V_in, d_s, and L are the volume of injected melt, diameter of sleeve, and sleeve length, respectively.

The possibility of remaining pores decreases with increasing the filling rate of the sleeve because the volume of air flowing into the die cavity decreases. However, too high of a sleeve filling rate causes waste of material

Conclusions

Through the die design using computer-aided engineering and experiments of squeeze casting to develop engine bracket mountings, the following results were obtained.

(1)
The gate system for mass production of the engine bracket mounting has been obtained by filling and solidification simulation.
(2)
The die design process to control the position of weld line has been proposed with gate size and position.
(3)
The maximum strength, elongation, and elastic modulus of part fabricated by the squeeze casting process

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N Fujii et al.
Solidification phenomena and quality of Al–Si alloy AC8A in squeeze casting
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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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In this paper, the relationship between interface heat transfer coefficient (IHTC) and interfacial pressure in direct squeeze casting process was studied by using microscopic contact model. First, through deducing the geometrical characteristics of rough surfaces using the standard procedure for roughness and waviness parameters and analyzing the thermo-mechanical behavior of the contacting surfaces, the relationship between the mean surface plane separation and the interface pressure and interface temperature was established. Then, based on the data acquired from squeeze casting experiments in which A356 aluminum alloy was used and microscopic heat transfer analysis, the IHTC and the mean surface plane separation was correlated. By combining the above relationships, the dependence of the IHTC on the interface pressure and the interface temperature was determined quantitatively. Comparison between the calculated and the experimental IHTC showed a good accordance. Besides, the relationship between the IHTC after the interfacial pressure at the casting-die interface decreased to zero and the interface temperature was also fitted through the experimental data.
On the interfacial heat transfer and pressure transmission in squeeze casting: A case study of the sensitivity to materials
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Jahangiri et al. (2017) found that the dendrite arm spacing and porosity of 2024 aluminum alloys can be decreased by increasing the squeeze casting pressure and reducing the pouring temperature. Youn et al. (2004) designed a squeeze casting process for an automobile part by computer-aided engineering and experiments, and found that the mechanical properties depended on the injection velocity and holding time after complete filling. To widen the application of squeeze casting technology for important components, further improvement to the formability and mechanical properties of a squeeze cast part has become a great challenge for researchers.
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In recent years, more and more complex parts of different wall thicknesses have been formed by indirect squeeze casting. In the process of indirect squeeze casting, defects such as segregation, microvoids, hot tears, porosity, internal and surface cracks are mainly caused by transport phenomenon during solidification of alloys [10–12]. Segregation is a main factor affecting microstructure and mechanical properties.
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Thermal fluid/solidification analysis of automobile part by horizontal squeeze casting process and experimental evaluation

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Horizontal squeeze casting process

Results and discussion

Conclusions

J. Mater. Process. Technol.

Development and realization of die casting process with squeezing

J. Jpn. Inst. Light Met.

Microstructures and mechanical properties of squeeze cast AC4CH alloy

J. Jpn. Inst. Light Met.

Solidification phenomena and quality of Al–Si alloy AC8A in squeeze casting

J. Jpn. Inst. Light Met.