Shortening the development process of castings by use of the virtual Design of Experiments (DoE)

The development process in the automotive industry requires a continuous adaptation to the increasing competitive conditions. This is especially valid for the reduction of development times. This was empowered by the parallel instead of the serial work flow as well as the development and continuous improvement of simulation software. Hardware tests as a main method ban itself due to time and cost reasons and can only be used as a final confirmation. The simulation of manufacturing processes and operational loading, supported by the knowledge of experienced engineers is the solution. A further reduction of development times can be achieved by applying statistical methods, like design of experiments (DoE), in the virtual part and manufacturing process development. Based on this, the influence of a serious amount of geometry and manufacturing parameters on the part quality can be observed. This article shows, based on the example of an aluminium crankcase with grey iron liners, how the development of a casting process can be made efficient and cost effective by the use of a virtual DoE. For that purpose the risk of cold lap development in the bridge between the liners, the residual stresses and the micro structure development are examined. As main influence factors, geometry parameters like the inner liner diameter of the liners and process parameters like the casting temperature, the amount of chills, or the pre-heating temperatures of the liners are examined. The results of the virtual DoE are revealing the optimal geometry and casting parameters as well as the suitable process window.