Abstract: Over 90% of all manufactured goods and machinery use a cast part. Sand casting is a manufacturing process that dates back to 1000 BC and accounts for 70% of all cast parts. Sand casting has several critical applications in a variety of sectors including defense, energy, aerospace and automotive. However, conventional sand casting is regarded as a process of uncertainty due to its tendency to render higher scrap rates even in completely controlled processing environments. Casting defect analysis shows that over 90% of casting defects occur due to improper gating and feeding systems. This talk will present a novel approach to rethink the design principles for: (1) sand cast parts and (2) gating and feeding systems to reduce defects in a given casting, alloy systems and pouring conditions. A systematic framework for the design, hybrid molding and instrumentation of molds for sand castings is presented for alloys of varying freezing ranges and pouring conditions. Results from numerical analysis, computational melt flow simulations and experimental evaluation show that 3D Sand-Printing can lower melt flow turbulence in castings which reduces casting defects (35% reduction) and improves as-cast mechanical properties (8.4% increase in flexural strength). Finally, early results from concurrent efforts to digitize the entire workflow of sand casting into wireless ‘Casting 4D’ is presented to visualize melt flow in sand molds.
Biographical Sketch: Dr. Guha Manogharan is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University – University Park. He heads the Systems for Hybrid – Additive Processing Engineering – The SHAPE Lab located in Innovation Park, Penn State. His research areas include additive and hybrid manufacturing, 3D Sand-Printing for novel metal casting processes, material development, and inter-disciplinary mechanical, biomedical and aerospace applications of additive manufacturing. Dr. Manogharan received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from North Carolina State University. He was awarded the 2018 International Outstanding Young Researcher in Freeform and Additive Manufacturing Award (FAME Jr), 2017 Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Yoram Koren Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award and the 2016 Outstanding Young Investigator by Manufacturing and Design Division of Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering.