AFS announced that contracting for three new projects as part of the Aluminum Casting Performance Initiative FY2024 funding package has been finalized. These projects will provide a critical step towards improving reliability and quality of aluminum casting methods.
In partnership with Univ. of California Irvine, Adjacency ML Analytics LLC, and Objective Inc, the first project aims to develop a machine-learning based image-recognition tool to diagnose aluminum-casting defects. Developing this system will allow users to more rapidly identify and diagnose defects in aluminum sand castings with fewer errors. A second project goal is to capture and refine the knowledge of the current aluminum quality workforce, allowing this experience to be more readily and quickly transferred to the next generation of aluminum metalcasters. Successful efforts will produce quicker casting processing, leading to shorter lead times, improved casting quality, and reduced costs.
The second project, working alongside PDA LLC, seeks to develop datasets for alloys to be added to the Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization (MMPDS) handbook and the Casting Alloy Database Search (CADS). This information, including chemistry, mechanical properties, and other design characteristics, will provide pedigreed data for DoD end users to utilize castings in the C355-T6 alloy with no knockdown factor and with further optimizations in design.
The third project, in partnership with Missouri S&T Univ., aims to develop a cutting-edge in-line tool for automated production of aluminum investment castings critical to the DoD. The specific improvement methods lie within the use of fiber optic sensors within the investment shell to provide real-time measurements of temperature and strain during various processing steps. This data will be used to create a digital twin of the shell manufacturing processing and casting process.
Please visit the AFS website research page at https://www.afsinc.org/research to learn more.
For more information, please contact Jackson Piontek, Research Associate of Metalcasting Services, at jpiontek@afsinc.org.
This research is funded through the American Foundry Society, as part of the Aluminum Casting Performance Initiative, Emergent Metal Casting Solutions (EMCS) program, sponsored by the Defense Logistics Agency Information Operations, J68, Research & Development, Ft. Belvoir, VA and the DLA Troop Support, Philadelphia, PA.