Fig. 1. Shown is an example of yield optimization.
The manufacturing of cast steel components presents numerous improvement opportunities in a whole range of materials, from manganese steels to nickel based alloys, with a high level of complexity and a large amount of critical requirements. Among all the possible advances, this article focuses exclusively on the optimization of the production yield, defined as the ratio between the weight of the cast part itself and the total amount of metal poured into the mold (net weight/gross weight ratio = yield).
Most of the companies belonging to the cast steel component manufacturing sector have utilized, in different degrees, casting process simulation tools that are currently available in the market. Jobbing shops, or producers of short production runs, make up a key segment of the steel casting industry. The aforementioned simulation software can be used by these metal casters as a tool to provide a low risk and a low cost review of the existing patterns, in such a way that the “traditional design criteria” of the feeding systems can be submitted to optimization strategies, focusing mainly on yield.