The Hindu Business Line : Software takes foundry shop trials to table top

Benefits
Virtual Casting can be used for industrial process design and in teaching and learning.
Students can use it as a virtual laboratory.
They can acquire better insight into the design process.

Thiruvananthapuram May 24 The National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST, formerly Regional Research Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram) has introduced a `Virtual Casting' software that promises to render casting simulation useful and affordable to the small and medium-scale foundry.

Virtual Casting is a solidification modelling software employed in the casting process. Developed by a group of three women scientists, Dr Roschen Sasikumar, Dr Elizabeth Jacob and Dr Savithri S., it has already made an impression in the casting and foundry segment.

OLD PROCESS

The metal casting industry, representing one of the oldest and most fundamental manufacturing processes, supplies millions of parts for automotive, aerospace, mining, production machinery, and many other applications.

Foundries are under increasing pressure to improve quality and reduce costs, and are finding advanced software packages a perfect foil in their new designs. These packages help foundry engineers to reduce or eliminate the need for trial-and-error prototyping.

Virtual Casting makes it possible to shift the trials from the shop floor to the computer, saving time, effort, energy and material. Computer simulations create virtual environments to test out new designs and process innovations before actually implementing them on the shop floor.

Such virtual test environments are becoming integral parts of modern technology, say the three scientists.

SHRINKAGE DEFECTS

The major issue that a casting simulation package addresses is that of shrinkage defects. Metals shrink on solidification - so if the mould is only just filled, cavities are bound to occur in the casting. So foundry practice insists on providing extra metal in the form of feeders.

It is not enough that the feeders are provided; in order to be effective, there are a number of design conditions that they have to fulfil.

LEARNING AID

Virtual Casting can be used not only for industrial process design, but also in teaching and learning. Students of foundry technology can use it as a virtual laboratory. By experimenting with different process variables and seeing the impact on the final outcome, they can acquire better insight into the design process.

The first few licences for Virtual Casting have been transferred to the research and development centres of the Institute of Indian Foundrymen at Hyderabad and Vijayawada. Installed at a central facility, this software is being used by academics for creating awareness on the benefits of computer simulation to foundries in the region.

LICENSES TRANSFERRED

Academic licences have been transferred also to National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal; MS University, Baroda; National Institute of Technology Warangal; and the Sree Chitra Tirunal College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.

The first industrial license was transferred to PK Steel Castings, Kozhikode. Since then it is being used on a regular basis on the shop floor for design of chills and risers for their castings.

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