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Improvement in Mechanical Properties of A356 Tensile Test Bars Cast in a Permanent Mold by Application of a Knife Ingate

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Abstract

As a standard test-bar permanent mold, the “Stahl” Mold has been widely used in foundries to assess the properties of cast alloys. However, inferior mechanical properties are often obtained with this mold due to shrinkage-induced microporosity in the gage section. In order to improve the mechanical properties, a design modification comprising a thin knife ingate between the feeder and test-bar cavity was evaluated in this work. The new design was studied by computer-aided simulation. Simulations predicted that the knife ingate improved the metal feeding capability and reduced the shrinkage microporosity at the gage section from 3 to 1 pct. Experimental verification work has been undertaken with aluminum alloy A356, and the results were analyzed by a statistics theory-based factorial analysis method. The new design resulted in main effects with ultimate tensile strength (UTS) improvement of 20 MPa (relative 12 pct) and elongation increment of 2 pct (relative 45 pct) for the as-cast test bars.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the advice and consultation with Steve Sikorski, MagmaSoft, regarding the computer simulation studies; foundry casting and testing activity with Xuejun Zhu, Chai-Jung Chen, and Rich Miller, CWRU; assistance by Bob Pischel and Jason Place, FOSECO, on mold coating and Alspek measurements; General Aluminum for the donation of a standard test-bar mold; Dennis Daniels, Alumalloy, for the A356 alloy. Finally, the project team thanks the American Foundry Society for supporting this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Yaou Wang (Postdoctoral Researcher)

  2. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    David Schwam (Professor), David V. Neff (Retired), Chai-Jung Chen (Doctoral Candidate) & Xuejun Zhu (Research Associate)

Authors
  1. Yaou Wang
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  2. David Schwam
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  3. David V. Neff
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  4. Chai-Jung Chen
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  5. Xuejun Zhu
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Correspondence to Yaou Wang.

Additional information

Manuscript submitted February 28, 2011.

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Wang, Y., Schwam, D., Neff, D.V. et al. Improvement in Mechanical Properties of A356 Tensile Test Bars Cast in a Permanent Mold by Application of a Knife Ingate. Metall Mater Trans A 43, 1048–1059 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-011-0918-2

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