Senior Project Gallery
Below are photos and brief descriptions of the design, manufacture, and testing process for my senior project at Central Washington University.
Project Abstract
Conversion castings are used in manufacturing to reduce time and costs of the production of machined parts. This project incorporated a machined production component from a local manufacturer and designed and produced an equivalent component using the casting process. The casting material chosen needed to be able to withstand all tension and compression forces when the component is used in service along with locations and dimensions of holes needed to be in accordance with all specified tolerances. The casting design process had to account for draft issues, shrinkage during material solidification, porosity and internal cavities formed during solidification, and overall optimization of material used for the casting process. The use of computer simulated solidification software aided in the design of runner and gating dimensions as well as predetermining significant problem areas for porosity and internal cavities within the castings. The manufacture of the mold pattern and core boxes was completed using the additive manufacturing process of three dimensional printing. Using this process eliminates the use of any machining processes for the manufacture of the casting along with significantly reducing the amount of man hours for fabrication. The patterns were made as well as the castings poured at Central Washington University using the 3-D printers and the foundry located in the engineering building. Success of this project will be determined through comparison of all dimensions to the current machined components and performance testing when put into service.
Clerf Hay clamps made by Harvestco Fabricators in Ellensburg, WA.
Project Design/Conception
This project consists of a conversion casting from a machined steel part to a grey iron casting. These images show the casting design, core and pattern design for the project.
Rapid Prototyping: 13 hours in 26 seconds.
This is a time lapse video of the 3D printing of the coreboxes used for the project. All parts for the pattern were made using this process as well.
Drag pattern made with rapid prototyping inside flask attached to matchplate.
Cope pattern made with rapid prototyping inside flask attached to matchplate.
These parts are from the success of the second pour. The cores and risers worked as intended. The only issue came from significant sand burn-in from the cast iron. Two causes from this are believed to be that the mold was too dry and the iron was too hot at the time of the pour.
Drag pattern made with rapid prototyping inside flask attached to matchplate.
Production/Casting Process
These images will give a summary of the production and casting process. The molds and castings were made in the foundry at Central Washington University. The foundry is green sand based with an Inductotherm induction furnace capable of 200 kW.
The test plan lays out all the testing that was to be performed on the castings. The load testing portion of the test plan was discarded due to it being deemed not necessary. The tensile test would cover this part of the test.
This Chem Analyzer was used to measure pouring temperature and the % Carbon of the material.
Both of the cast clips mounted perfectly to the body of the C950 clamp as they were designed.
The test plan lays out all the testing that was to be performed on the castings. The load testing portion of the test plan was discarded due to it being deemed not necessary. The tensile test would cover this part of the test.
Testing and Final Product
These images show the different testing procedures that were performed on the project.