Manufacturing – Casting methods - European Aluminium Association
Manufacturing – Casting methods - European Aluminium Association
Manufacturing – Casting methods - European Aluminium Association
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1.11 Vacuum riserless castings<br />
1.11.1 VRC / PRC <strong>–</strong> Introduction<br />
VRC / PRC is a combination of Vacuum Riserless <strong>Casting</strong> (VRC) with Pressure Riserless<br />
<strong>Casting</strong> (PRC) (fig.1). This variant of low pressure die casting has been developed by Alcoa<br />
mainly for automotive chassis parts.<br />
"Riserless" means no mechanical feeding of melt into the mould. In addition, the level of melt<br />
in the feeding furnace is kept constant by replacing every shot from a holding furnace.<br />
Furthermore, the direction of solidification is controlled by active heating and/or cooling.<br />
Thicker sections can be fed directly in most cases, leading to lean gating systems.<br />
VRC / PRC castings have a dense, fine grained microstructure with excellent mechanical<br />
properties.<br />
Fig. 1: Elements of Alcoa's VRC/PRC process, schematically<br />
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