Influence of Die Temperature Control on Solidification and the Casting Process

Permanent mold metal casting processes use tempering with oil, water or air as state-of-the-art method for temperature control of certain regions. This approach aims at either creating certain temperature gradients inside the die thus leading to better casting quality or cools down critical hotspots in order to decrease cycle times or increase service life. In order to perform an investigation on the influences of oil tempering on a permanent die and the solidification of the aluminum alloy A356, an experimental setup is used with measurement instrumentation for recording temperatures inside the melt and die as well as recording the movement of the die and the casting, thus enabling a gap width determination and measuring the contact pressure present on an inner core. A thermomechanical simulation of the solidification also is performed representing the processes occurring inside the experimental setup and extending the available data beyond the information locally provided at the experimental measuring positions. This approach allows for an evaluation of the influence of oil tempering on the solidification process, the thermal conditions inside of the casting, die, and core, and describes the behavior of a one-sided cooling of a comparatively large melt volume as well as the influences on a region with two-sided heat extraction affecting a smaller melt volume.