Effects of gating design on the mechanical strength of thin section castings

Abstract

Gating system design in casting process is one of the crucial factors to produce good quality of casting product. This study is aimed to determine the effects of runner gating design on mechanical strength of thin section Al-Si7-Mg alloy castings which are cast using sand casting process. The runner design used in this study is Radius bend shaped and L shape design. Flow behavior of filling process is identified by using the ADSTEFAN simulation software. 3-point bending test was applied to measure the flexure strength and its scatter is quantified by Weibull statistics. Simulation results found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. It is observed that radius bend shaped design leads to the improvement of average flexure strength and reduction of porosity defects compared with L shape design.