RESEARCH PROJECT

High Pressure Die Casting Defects

and
Simulation Process by Computer Added Engineering (CAE)

ME8109 – CASTING AND SOLIDIFICATION OF MATERIALS

Presented by: Irshad Ali (Student # 500482510) Dated: 29th February, 2012
 Outline of Presentation

1. Introduction of High Pressure Die Casting.

2. High Pressure Die Casting Process Defects.

Surface Defects.

Sub-surface Defects.

3. Simulation in High Pressure Die Casting Process.

Introduction.

Modeling of the casting process.

Simulation of the casting process system.

Behavior and information revealed via CAE simulation.

Filling process simulation.

Solidification process simulation.

Stress analysis in casting.

4. Case studies of Simulation of the casting process system.

5. Conclusions.
6. References
 Introduction of High Pressure Die Casting:

High pressure die casting is a manufacturing process in which molten

metal is injected with a die casting machine under force using considerable
pressure into a steel mold or die to form products.

HPDC provide:

•Excellent dimensional accuracy.

•The smooth surfaces of Product.

•Casted parts require no machining

except the removal of flash around the
edge and possible drilling and tapping holes.

•High pressure die casting production is fast

and inexpensive relative to other casting processes.
 Introduction of High Pressure Die Casting:

Process Cycle of High Pressure Die Casting:

Molten metal into the shot sleeve.

Plunger movement.

Rapid die filling.
(The steel die Pressurized hydraulically by the plunger).

The die is opened.

The casting is ejected.
Spray die lubricant.

Spray

High pressure die casting Mechanism:

 Introduction of High Pressure Die Casting:

Product Application of HPDC:

•Transportation Industry (Specially Automotive), Electronic Industry, Medical

equipments, Consumer Industry, Telecommunication Industry, Instrumentation and
Tools (Hand & Power)

High pressure die casting Products:

 High Pressure Die Casting Defects:

Depending on the location of the casting defects, they can be divided into
two major categories, namely “Surface” and “Subsurface” defects.

Surface Defects:

Surface defects are occurring on the surface or near to the surface (exposed to surface) of
the castings.

Surface defects in high pressure die castings can result from deficiencies at any stage of the
manufacturing process.

A. Flash:

The occurrence of molten material

seeping out of the mold cavity and
solidifying.
 High Pressure Die Casting Defects:
B. Unfilled sections (Misrun):
This is usually caused by the metal
solidifying before it fills the cavity.

The metal was too cold.

It could be too small a sprue, gate.

Insufficient shot volume.

Slow injection.

Low pouring temperature.

C. Hot Tearing:

A part defect, sometimes called hot

cracking, which describes cracks that
result from shrinkage. If a part is not
allowed to shrink freely and encounters
an obstruction, the solidified material
will crack. The main causes of
problems are Non-uniform cooling rate.
 High Pressure Die Casting Defects:

Sub-surface Defects:
Sub-surface defects are not visible to the naked eye due to their occurrence below the
surface of the castings.

A. Non-metallic inclusions:
Inclusions occur as varying types with differing sizes and shapes.
•Aluminum oxides are of different crystallographic or amorphous forms as films,
flakes, and agglomerated particles.
• Magnesium oxide is typically present as fine particulate.
•Spinals can be small hard nodules or large complex shapes.
•Refractory and other exogenous inclusions may be identified by their appearance
and composition.
 High Pressure Die Casting Defects:

B. Shrinkage and Porosity defects:

Porosity and Shrinkage is the formation of voids inside the castings either through
the entrapment of gas, improper pressure configuration in HPDC machines and
Improper Solidification of material .
The problem can be divided into three major types:

Gas porosity:
The gas porosity is the porosity in casting due to the
presence of gas.

Shrinkage porosity:
The shrinkage porosity is due to shrinking of metal, so
that the metal loses volume and hence more metal is
required to fill the gaps (voids) produced.

Flow porosity:
Melt related porosity formation because hydrogen
entrapment in HPDC is not a big problem. Hydrogen
can be considered seriously if the scrap is re-melted.
 Simulation in High Pressure Die Casting Process
Product development paradigm appears to be more heuristic and experience-based
than deep scientific simulation, evaluation, analysis, and calculation. It is thus time-
consuming, error-proof, and needs a lot of experimental tryout and verification in the
workshop for ‘proof-of-concept’.

Simulation helps to determine:

Process routing and process Parameter

configuration.

Verify the die design based on the revealed flow

behavior and solidification phenomena.

The filling and solidification behavior related to

product quality and defect forming mechanism.

Physical basis and useful information for product

quality improvement and defect avoidance
 Simulation in High Pressure Die Casting Process
Modeling of the casting process:
Modeling will represent the casting processes by models from physical and
mathematical perspectives
 Simulation in High Pressure Die Casting Process
Simulation of the casting process system:
The following Figure presents a process-based simulation framework for prediction of
casting defects.
 Simulation in High Pressure Die Casting Process
Behavior and information revealed via CAE simulation:
CAE simulation of the entire casting system reveals filling and solidification behavior
in the casting process and identifies the necessary information related to product
quality and defect formation.

Filling process simulation:

•Melt-front positions, turbulence in the melt movement and filling smoothness.

•Filling sequence in the casting and determination of overflow and venting locations.

Solidification process simulation:

•The last solidification area and the location of ingate.

•Solidification sequence and the temperature distribution in the casting and die.
•Shrinkage and porosity distribution in the casting.

Stress analysis in casting:

•Distortion of the casting and Die stress analysis and thermal deformation prediction
•Optimized casting system design such as feeding system design.
 Case studies of Simulation of the casting process system
Behavior and information revealed via CAE simulation:
CAE simulation of the entire casting system reveals filling and solidification behavior
in the casting process and identifies the necessary information related to product
quality and defect formation.

The layout of the casting filling system

The design of the overflow is in such a way that the two overflow locations
are located at the last filling places.
 Case studies of Simulation of the casting process system

Simulation Parameters Setup:

The cast material is AlSi9Cu3; a widely-used die cast material.

The die material is X38CrMoV5.

The CAE simulation is Magmasoft.

the pouring temperature of the melt is 670°C.

The liquidus and solidus temperatures are 578°C and 479°C.

All the die components have an initial temperature of 150°C.

Five cycles of simulation are conducted to reach a stable condition.

 Case studies of Simulation of the casting process system

Finding of Simulation Process:

The melt-front advancement
Unreasonable filling pattern and the defect

position in filling process. caused.
(a) Simulation predicted irrational flow
(b) The real defect revealed by experiment..

The two melt streams push the air into the centre of
the flange and finally there is air entrapment in the
centre of the flange. Since there is no efficient
venting mechanism and the entrapment air blocks the
melt flow..
 Case studies of Simulation of the casting process system

Finding of Simulation Process:

solidification result of predicted by

CAE simulation

It shows the hottest area and thus it is
the last solidification area in the cast.

This would mean that there is no melt

feeding for the last solidification area
when it is solidified.

When the melt is fully solidified, the

volume contraction from liquid to solid
occurs.

To void this uneven temperature

distribution in the solidification
Defect caused by the unreasonable temperature process, a better designed cooling
distribution in the solidification process. system is needed.
(a) Simulation result; (b) real part
 Conclusion

The simulation-enabled casting quality prediction and defect

evaluation.

Reduces trial-and-error in the workshop as the process is

virtually realized and verified by computer.

Quality issue can be pinpointed and the related solutions can be

proposed.
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