Melt Quality Investigation For High Integrity Aluminium Castings

The use of the MTS 1500 process has been demonstrated to improve melt cleanliness in the manufacture of high-integrity aluminium castings. This paper discusses some recent case studies, focusing on high-pressure die casting applications and the use of VMET melt quality assessment to quantify the level of melt quality improvement.

Critical metal treatment practice and quality analysis for aluminium foundries.

This paper will review some of the latest benefits observed with the MTS 1500 process in terms of improving melt cleanliness when making Aluminium pistons, low-pressure wheels or melting Aluminium chips.

Some MTS case studies will focus on HPDC which is becoming the largest aluminium process driven by e-mobility.

The use of VMET (Melt Quality Assessment) has enabled us to quantify the level of melt quality improvement that is generated by the MTS 1500 Process.

INTRODUCTION

Metal treatment is a critical part of the foundry process, which often has a significant impact on casting quality, reject rates and costs.

Hydrogen gas porosity is one of the primary concerns in Aluminium foundries.

But oxide removal also referred to as “melt cleaning” is becoming an increasingly important step which significantly impacts the casting’s mechanical properties.

Existing cleaning practice often consists of hand fluxing or rotary degassing flux injection, but both have important restrictions or limitations.

Hand fluxing can be unreliable since it is operator dependant. Variations in addition rates, treatment times can cause major differences in efficiency and melt quality when cleaning, grain refining or doing sodium modification. This is especially true in High Pressure Die casting (HPDC) where the number of ladles or furnaces treated can exceed 100 per day.