Analysis of Cooling Conditions of A356 Aluminum Alloy Rim Low-pressure Casting

Abstract

At present, rims on the market are mostly made by aluminum alloy high-pressure casting. If the waiting and cooling time parameters of the air pipe are not controlled properly in the casting process, internal shrinkage of the rim often occurs after solidification. This study uses computer-aided analysis software MAGMASOFT to control the waiting and cooling time of the air pipe. The aluminum alloy rim casting process is simulated under different parameter conditions, according to the analysis result of steady-state convergence, the shrinkage index (SI) from the liquid entrapped phenomenon is used to observe the effect of the temperature difference between the rib midsection and rib tail section on rim casting shrinkage size, in order to improve shrinkage. The simulation program and SI may be used to predict rim casting quality in the future, determine the optimum process parameters, upgrade rim casting quality, and reduce rim production costs. Finally, the Taguchi method is used to obtain the optimum process parameter combination, with the intention of obtaining the best product stabilizing effect.