METAL CASTING

TECHNOLOGY

MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF CASTINGS PRODUCED VIA 3D

PRINTED MOULDS AND PATTERNS
 NAME REGISTRATION NUMBER

B VENKATA SAI KRISHNA 17BME0535

NISHAT UR RAHAMAN 17BME0673

CHINNAKADRI HARISH 17BME0710

B NIKHIL REDDY 17BME0567

TECHNICAL REFERENCE

• The sand casting process is one of the oldest process used in the manufacturing
technology.
• This sand casting process is achieved by pouring molten metal into a mould which
replicates the part to be casted as a contour to it.
• Even though we can use patterns and other things to prepare the mould. It is not
feasible and easy to make moulds by patterns for complex castings.
• This can be achieved by using a 3D printed mould which we can shape into any
complex shape.
• The 3d printed moulds can be used for casting products like grips, jigs, low run
injection moulds, complex part which are used in aerodynamics etc.
LITERATURE REVIEW

NAME: Material properties of castings produced via 3d printer moulds

AUTHORS: dean a snelling, Christian b Williams
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 3RD APRIL 2019
ABSTRACT: Additive manufacture of sand molds via binder jetting enables the casting of complex metal
geometries. Various material systems have been created for 3D printing of sand molds; however, a formal study of
the materials’ effects on cast products has not yet been conducted. In this paper the authors investigate potential
differences in material properties (microstructure, porosity, mechanical strength) of A356 – T6 castings resulting
from two different commercially available 3D printing media. In addition, the material properties of cast products
from traditional “no-bake” silica sand is used as a basis for comparison of castings produced by the 3D printed
molds.
OBJECTIVES

• The potential differences of the metal properties such as porosity, microstructure

and mechanical strength are compared between metal parts produced by
traditional moulds and 3d printed moulds.
• If we use 3d printed moulds the surface roughness and tensile strength of castings
may be altered which is the is the main agenda of this project.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE AND METHODOLOGY

• We need to produce and compare the mechanical properties of two castings produced.
• A 3D printed mould is used to make the casting process.
• The resultant casting is compared with the casting produced by traditional casting.
• The results obtained can prove whether 3d printed moulds are more feasible than
normal moulds.
WORK

• We made a design for the mould to be printed via 3d printing.

OBSERVATIONS

Microstructure
The dendrite arm spacing was analyzed to determine if the different molds types provide a
difference in micrsostructure which relates to mechanical properties for the aluminum cylinders.
Finer dendrite arm spacing is desirable for better mechanical property performance and is a
direct result of cooling rate. A faster cooling rate in Aluminum results in smaller dendrite arms,
which in turn yields better mechanical properties. Samples were ground using 320 and 600 grit
polishing paper on a MetPrep 3 grinder/polisher. The sample surfaces were polished using
standard metallographic techniques with final polishing with 0.05 μm colloidal silica and a final
finishing cloth. No etching was required to examine the dendritic microstructure of aluminum.
OBSERVATION

Porosity
Porosity in cast specimens are defects and can significantly affect the strength and fatigue of the cast parts. Five
optical micrographs were taken of each sample for porosity measurements. ImageJ software was used to find the
percent porosity by calculating the percentage of the total area covered by pores in each micrograph at 50x
magnification. These measurements were used to compare the quantitative relationship of porosity between
molding materials. To accomplish this, the software was used to adjust the threshold of the image, highlight the
pores, and measure the percent area of the pores. The threshold color brightness was adjusted until the pores
were fully highlighted, and the size settings for analyzing particles were adjusted until the software recognized the
pores. The ImageJ settings depended on the original saturation and contrast of the images. For example,
micrographs with less contrast between black pores and surrounding material require higher threshold color
brightness settings in ImageJ to fully highlight pores. The threshold color brightness values were adjusted to
completely fill each pore before analyzing the porosity.
OBSERVATION

Surface Roughness
Surface Roughness can also have a large effect on mechanical properties including fatigue as well as
geometrical resolution of the final parts being cast. Surface roughness was measured using a Phase II SRG
Surface Roughness Tester. Roughness average (Ra) of the cylinders cast using different molds was measured.
Surface roughness was taken of the outer edge of the casting in contact with the molding material. It is
expected that castings made from ExOne and no-bake molds will have similar values for surface roughness.
Because of the different size distributions of both rounded silica sands (ExOne having a better controlled
distribution), it is possible there will be slightly different values. ZCast sand has a finer particle size, which
could potentially increase surface roughness of the resultant casting due to the permeability effect of the
mold material. This coupled with off-gassing effects could also cause surface defects in the metal that is in
contact with the mold, and thus have potential major effects on surface roughness.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Characterization data was collected for each of the three material types as indicated in
Section 2. Statistical software was then used to investigate potential significant differences in
the data set. Characterization data for each mold type was tested for normality by plotting
as a normal distribution and testing the goodness of fit. If the data failed the test for
normality, a nonparametric Wilcoxon paired test was performed on the data; if data for all
sand types are normal, a Tukey paired comparison was conducted. All data was analyzed
using a level of significance.