Mold design

• Production of blanks
• Designing the mold from the blank data
• Developing castings per customer order
• Reverse Engineering
• Casting simulation

Manufacturing is immediately based on 3D data records of the casting blank or finished part, as made available by the customer or developed/ acquired together with the customer.

Information for Data exchange (pdf)

Later, in the CAD department, the data records for the mold segments and cores necessary to produce the casting mold are generated. For mold design, ACTech uses 12 CAD workstations with Catia and Pro/E. Smooth communication with the customers is secured in combination with almost all established Interfaces. Third-party systems may also be read via interfaces.

A completely described solid is made from the 3D data record. Corresponding allowances are added for follow-up machining, and functional mounting links are designed.

Mold design itself starts with the follow-up design of the prepared gate and feeder systems. The mold is segmented, and existing cores are removed and are placed with core prints to be stored in the mold. All mold segments and cores are equipped with mutual locking mechanisms. Finally, the mold generated is checked for its fitness for mounting. However, due to the almost unlimited options allowed by laser-sintering, even exceptional mold parting lines can be implemented without concern about undercuts and removability.
Casting simulation may optimize casting and feeder equipment. To solve such problems, we use the simulation software ProCast. It is not only possible to follow mold filling with subsequent solidification, but also to analyze casting distortion.
 

Interfaces

• CATIA V5 (*.CATPART)
• CATIA V4 (*.MODEL)
• ProE-WildFire 4 (*.prt)
• ProE-WildFire 3 (*.prt)
• ProE-WildFire 2 (*.prt)
• STEP (*.stp)
• IGES (*.igs)
• VDA-FS (*.vda)
• UG-NX5 (*.prt)

Examples

Cylinder crankcase

Raw casting geometry from  the customer	Raw casting with gating and risering system	Exploded view of the complete casting mold

Companion part Material: AlSi10Mg wa Size: 160 x 120 x 65 mm Design of a split piece to produce a DIRECT CRONING®-mold with all undercuts at low cost Mold consists of top and bottom boxes.

Turbine housing Material: GGG - NiSiCr 35.5.2 Size: 230 x 225 x 100 mm Segmentation of the mold in top box, core and bottom box Mold locks, gate and feeder system as well as denseness inserts are clearly visible

Wheel housing Material: GG25 Size: 1435 x 1135 x 215 mm Decomposition of complex mold into bottom box, 3 top boxes and 20 cores Representation of small  geometries by DIRECT CRONING® - cores Large cores (shown in violet), as well as top and bottom boxes are made by direct mold milling

Simulation

Casting simulation

Casting simulation is frequently used to support the dimensioning of casting- and feeder equipment. With this method, forecasts about expected mold filling and the casting quality may be derived early on by computer, based on 3D-CAD data. This way, it is possible to use the results of optimizations even in the first molding. The simulation software available is ProCast.

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