FLUIDITY CHARACTERISTICS OF A356 ALLOY WITH VARIOUS THICKNESS SECTIONED NEW TEST MOULD

Abstract

Fluidity of alloys are typically carried out in a spiral test mould. Due to the variation of the results, several attempts have been made to optimise the test procedure. Pouring basin has been updated by addition of a stopper and using a defined quantity of melt to be poured. However, one of the discussed issues of the spiral test mould is its fixed size cavity where the liquid is transferred. Therefore, a mould was introduced by Campbell in which a single runner bar was used to feed different thickness sections. In this study, this mould design was used to investigate the effect of temperature (700 degrees C, 725 degrees C and 750 degrees C) and modification (Ti grain refinement and Sr) on the fluidity of A356 alloy. The results were compared with the simulation (SolidCast) to optimise the characteristics of the alloy.