Iron melt flow in thin-walled sections using vertically parted moulds

Reducing the fuel consumption of vehicles can be done in many ways. A general way of doing it, is to reduce the weight as it is applicable together with all other means of saving fuel. Even though iron castings have been used in cars from the first car ever build, a big potential still exist for optimizing iron cast parts. To do so thin walled parts have to be used. I.e. flow in thin walled sections becomes important. Flow in plates with thicknesses from 2 to 4 mm have been investigated. It is shown that the main flow path can be changed even in such small thicknesses and that when conventional gating systems are used small changes in the casting conditions can change the flow patterns radically. Flow in thin walled sections is not only important in thin walled part. This is illustrated with a brake disc as example. 3 different layouts have been made. The filling sequences have been recorded on video for a closer examination. The trials show the difficult task to design a bottom filling gating system generating no splash during the initial filling. Two basically different systems are used, one giving a high degree of control over the melt flow and a conventional one relaying on the relative sizes of the dynamic and braking forces in the gating system.