Implementation of Metal Casting Best Practices - EERE - U.S. ...

Mitigating R&D Risk
One reason Lost Foam Foundry-1 has been an active participant in Metal Casting R&D is
because it views program efforts as a means of mitigating its own R&D risks. Foundry
management finds some of the projects funded by Metal Casting R&D as risky for investment
and is hesitant to undertake such projects because they require a return on their R&D investment
in 2.5 years or less. Lost Foam Foundry-1, therefore, finds value in taking the results of a number
of the projects funded by Metal Casting R&D and using them as a foundation for its own
research.
As one example of this strategy, Lost Foam Foundry-1 and its parent company worked with
Arena-Flow to upgrade the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tools for blowing and steaming
EPS patterns. Industry experts estimate that poor patterns and coatings account for over 65% of
all defects in the lost foam process that subsequently result in scrap castings. The EPS beads
must flow through geometrically complex passages to fill a mold with a uniform packing density.
The process of blowing beads is further complicated because of bead expansion caused by the
residual heat in the mold. Arena-Flow developed a mathematical tool that allows the user to take
an analytical approach to systematically designing EPS patterns. The tool extended an existing
gas-particulate model to simulate air-driven bead blowing and use of pre-expanded beads for the
mold, and the steaming of the beads to form the pattern. Because of this research, Arena-Flow
released the initial bead blowing module in December 2001 and its second version in October
2002. The first release of the bead expansion module became available in December 2002.
Lost Foam Foundry-1 purchased the Arena-Flow software package to address manufacturing
design issues as well as resolve bottlenecks. After many trials with the modules, the foundry
found them to be only 20-30% accurate and, thus, used it only for troubleshooting casting
problems. Nevertheless, the foundry found that the modules held promise. They began to work
with Arena-Flow to expand the code and allowed Arena-Flow to gather data from their plant.
Although the initial modules were not as accurate as plant management would have liked, the
research demonstrated that the computational process worked and that the code could be
expanded. If it were not for the investment made by Metal Casting R&D, private companies such
as Lost Foam Foundry-1 could not spend the resources to develop the initial modules. ITP
mitigated this risk and fostered further development by both Lost Foam Foundry-1 and Arena-
Flow.
2. Areas of Improvement
Lost Foam Foundry-1 is a very modern facility. The plant is highly automated and is equipped
with some cutting-edge technologies. The facility had a program in place to address obvious
energy wastes such as compressed air leaks and energy-efficient lighting. The assessment team
could only identify two areas for improvement at the plant: use of a stack melter and adding
pressure to its castings.
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