CAST-DESIGNER FOR HIGH-PRESSURE DIE-Casting

Cast-Designer is a software system to assist casting system design and analysis based on upfront design & analysis technology. It is expert system and CAE technology built from day one specifically for integration within the design process. This innovative software puts fluid flow analysis, heat transfer and solidification analysis into the hands of the same people who are responsible for developing the casting, mould and making engineering decisions. It is much more modest in its capabi l it ies than t radi t ion numerical simulation, but can provide some of the same insights.

With Cast-Designer, the user can detect part features with potential flow and solidification problems, evaluate gate system and overflow design alternatives, and generally evaluate castability. The user does not have to be an expert in simulation and the time required for evaluating a casting design is remarkably quick. In other word, Cast-Designer can help industrial to achieve the target of 'Time to Market'.

CAST-DESIGNER for Die Casting is a modules package special designed for high pressure die casting with express gating system design and fast validation capability.

Integration of expert system and CAE technology, A tailor-designed mould planning & simulation system for die casting industry

WORK FLOW OF CAST-DESIGNER CPI

CAD Data

• Start from 3D casting, support almost CAD system
• Standard CAD import and export: STEP, IGES, BREP, DXF, STL
• Extra converter to support Catia, UG, Pro-E, Solidworks data directly
• Support many CAE mesh format (STL, UNV, Ansys,  Nastran etc.)
• Build in OpenCASCADE CAD kernel with full 3D capability
• Powerful CAD clean, healing & processing functions
• Using Cast-Designer to design 3D gating system, overflow and venting system

Gating System

• Expert system for high pressure die casting with industrial validation widely
  Natural design workflow, full parameter control, flexible, powerful and easily
• Build in industrial knowledge, experience and know-how
• Support data template and customized template
• Both cold chamber and hot chamber, shot machine selection

Express Meshing

• Fully automatically 3D meshing, no CAE knowledge required
• Very fast and robust, flexible control the voxel size in different direction (X/Y/Z)
• Support multi domain, no Boolean operation required of CAD before  meshing
• Original data could be CAD or mesh or mixed CAD and mesh
• Special treatment for CAD or mesh defects, such as geometry gap, overlay, intersection or unclose.
• Advance technology such as coarse mesh and smooth mesh for tin dimension region to avoid huge model or feature lose.

Casting Setup

• Setup casting process, boundary condition and control parameters for CPI analysis
• Single page for all condition and parameters, very simple
• Rich material data, select material from database directly and database management
• All conditions and parameters could be save as CSF template and use back anytime
• No requirement for CAE knowledge, very short leaning curve

Analyze & Results

• Perform simulation and result analysis
• High-end technology with very fast simulation speed, tens minutes to one hour depend the model size
• Batch simulation mode and multi tasks could be controlled easily
• Using ParaView as post-processors, very powerful, flexible and without limitation
• Rich analysis result in various format, support animation and VRML
• Support plug-in filter for post-process, similar concept as Photoshop

WHY NOT TRADITIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION?

It is well known the traditional numerical simulation is not applicable or very expensive for the concept stage

• The data to run a numerical simulation is usually not available yet, for example runner geometry
• Due to the complexity of the equation system to be solved, numerical simulation is too time consuming, usually hours or even days
• Numerical simulation provides a relatively high level accuracy, which is more than needed at conceptual design stage

Design Advisor

Expert system for high pressure die casting with wide industrial validation, Natural design workflow, full parameter control, flexible, powerful and easily Build in industrial knowledge, experience and know-how Based on the mass, geometry and material type the Design Advisor can estimate the filling time automatically, and guide the user to select the casting machine correctly to meet a reasonable filling ratio of the chamber. It also can predict the 1st and 2nd speed, critical shift point and calculate the final section areas for ingate, gate-runner, runner and sprue runner. All the number of gates and runners could be evaluated and adjusted in real time. Support data template and customized template Both cold chamber and hot chamber, shot machine selection

STEP by STEP Gating System Design

Cast Zone Analysis Cast zone function is very suitable to the part with multi inner gate but with unbalance mass distribution Cast zone can help user to design the inner gate to achieve a balance metal flow and filling time The analysis tool can provide detail inner gate section area , filling time and maximum flow distance.

DRAFT DESIGN Draft design is the most effective way for concept design Draft design could be used for any communication easily, such as internal discussion with colleagues or customers, report to manager and learning section Support image format：JPG, BMP, TIF Background method in bitmap for plan comparison Convert to vector data automatically for any CAD operation

Inner Gate Design Build in wizard based on KBE system, the build in wizard and online help can provide useful industrial data, such as filling velocity, filling time, ingate thickness etc. The advance method can consider the part quality requirement to provide accurate filling time Inner gate area comparison in real time Online tips and wizards with industrial know-how and experience Online evaluation tools Suitable to ingate with complex geometry

Gate-Runner and Runner Design Build in wizard to define flow path and section parameters quickly Support runner with fan, curve and tangent Generate feature sections in predefined curve or wire directly Various styles in solid model generation Take account of the efficiency of metal flow in runner design Real time WYS/WYG visualization for both 2D and 3D

Sprue-runner Design Support Cold and hot chamber machine as well as no sprue runner design Support multi sprue runner design Full parameterized and standard design Help select casting machine and estimate machine parameters, The build in database, includes more than 200 casting machines Easily to customize

Overflow Designing overflow system, is quite simple in Cast-Designer, both standard overflow, and non-standard overflow are supported. The rectangular overflow, orbicular overflow, and wedge overflow, are built in the software system, as pre-defined overflow, to design overflow, which belong to pre-defined type, the user only need input the dimension, and location. The orientation of overflow, could be adjusted very easy. Multi group overflows ,and overflow belong different type, are supported by Cast-designer, with data management capability. The overflow can be translated, rotated, and mirrored, to a new design. All data of overflow, could be save to user template, and used in the next time.

Cooling and venting system Cooling and venting channel can be generated basing on the pre-defined path line or curve with a flexible sections define Build in wizard to calculate the total length and section area of cooling line to achieve heat transfer balance Support cooling block design And the venting block design, could be done in full parametric, to support vacuum system.

CPI Analysis for Die Casting

OVERVIEW

Cast-Designer CPI (Casting Process Insight) is a powerful tool to provide the detail metal flow, solidification and heat transfer information during casting process based on the last FEM technology. CPI is special designed for the conceptual stage for casting part and mould design, it is much more modest in its capabilities than tradition numerical simulation.

With Cast-Designer CPI, the user can detect part features with potential filling and solidification problems, evaluate gate system and overflow design alternatives. The user does not have to be an expert in simulation to use CPI and the time required for evaluating a die casting design is remarkably quick. In other word, CPI can be used by any die caster, tool maker, or part designer with access to a computer.

BENEFITS TO USER

CPI is the sole really practical tool on the marketing today to support designer and engineer to make fast decision for casting part and mould design.

• Analysis the part thickness to guide the mould and cooling channel design and placement.
• Innovation technology with high accuracy and no limitation compared with tradition method
• Integrated CAD, design and analysis in a same environment, setup an analysis model in a few minuets and a few clicks
• No requirement for any CAE knowledge, very short learning curve

Casting Process Insight (CPI) Functions

High speed

Cast-Designer CPI is the fastest casting design and simulation system.

• ~30 minutes for a general gating system design with overflow
• ~10 minutes for analysis model setup
• 30min to 1.5 hour for a fluid flow analysis
• ~30 minutes for a Solidification analysis

Design and test 4 to 5 design plans within 8 hours (one work day) !!

User Friendly: Auto mesh generation

• Very fast and robust 3D meshing with fully automatically
• Flexible to control the Voxel size in different direction
• Support multi solid geometry, no Boolean operation required
• CAD or mesh or mixed CAD & mesh as original data
• Special treatment for CAD defects, such as geometry gap, overlay, intersection or unclose
• Advance technology for tin dimension or complex region (unique)
• Special technology for surface smooth to catch the CAD geometry (unique)

Simple Operation: Material Database

Cast-Designer CPI provides material database as standard. It has a material database which contains over 300 types of material data. Initial value for each material is prepared in the database so that required material database is available by clicking the name of the material. Also, it is easy to customize the database as you want, such as adding new material data or changing some value of the existing material.

Items of Material properties

• Density
• Thermal Conductivity
• Specific Heat
• Dynamic Viscosity
• Latent Heat
• Initial Temperature
• Liquidus Line Temperature
• Solidus Line Temperature
• Shrinkage Factor of Casting Volume
• Linear Coefficient of Expansion
• Young’s modulus
• Poisson’s ratio
• etc…

Integration System: User template

For all simulation model carried out by Cast-Designer CPI, a user template file will be generated automatically. The user can import and divert parameters from previous analysis if models are similar. Even if there are some differences, the user can change them to appropriate parameters for new analysis. It makes it easy for engineers to set parameters for analysis.

Analysis Solver

CAST-DESIGNER CPI consists of various analysis solvers with high speed calculation. These solvers are available for 32bit, 64bit and parallel calculation which leads to further reduction of calculation time.

Defect assessment and Optimum designing Misrun, Cold shut, Flow line, Air entrapment, Gas porosity Shrinkage cavity, porosity, Cold flakes, Hot spot Soldering, Casting distortion, Crack Optimization of positions of overflow and cooling. Optimization of runner geometry, Optimization of Gate Considering filling speed, filling temperature and die temperature Considering and optimizing casting tact

Fluid Flow Analysis Filling status of the molten metal (Distribution of filling ratio, Marker of air entrapment, Vector display of molten metal/air, Tracing of flow Air distribution, Pressure, Velocity etc.) Temperature Distribution (Temperature distribution of molten metal/mold, Initial temperature of filling metal, maximum heating temperature of die ) surface Filling termination time Graph display of measuring points (Temperature of casting/die, Pressure, Filling ratio, Velocity)

Solidification Analysis Temperature Distribution (Temperature distribution of casting/mold, Temperature gradient, Temperature of die surface) Solidification time Cooling rate, Estimation of spacing of dendrite (DAS-II) arms Graph display of measuring points (Temperature of casting/mold)

Post Processor

Post processor visualizes the result files in 3D. Various display methods are available on the Post processor, such as section surface display or emphasis display by setting scaling values.

• Fluid Flow Analysis Results: Temperature, Filling ratio, Velocity, Flow rate, Vorticity, Volume of entrapment air etc…
• Solidification Analysis Results: Distribution of solidus ratio, Temperature gradient, Casting temperature, Die temperature, Cooling rate, etc…
• Display Methods: Marker display, Vector display, Counter line display, Graph display
• Generation of animation file