Warpage Optimisation on the Moulded Part with Conformal Cooling Channels using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Glowworm Swarm Optimisation (GSO)

Today, there are many of optimisation method have been explored by previous researchers to find the appropriate processing parameters setting for the injection moulding process. From the previous researches, it has been proven that the optimisation work improved the quality of the moulded part. However, the application of optimisation work in conformal cooling channels still lacks. Therefore, in this study, the application of optimisation work to improve warpage of front panel housing with conformal cooling channels moulds have been explored. By choosing cooling time, coolant temperature, packing pressure and melt temperature as the variable parameters, design of experiment (DOE) has been defined by using the rotatable central composite design (CCD) approach. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was performed to determine the mathematical model. The mathematical model then will be used in Glowworm Swarm Optimisation (GSO) method in order to obtain the optimal processing parameters setting which will optimise the warpage condition. Based on the results, cooling time is the most significant factor contributes to the warpage condition and warpage have optimised by 38.7% after optimisation using the proposed approach. This finding shows that the application of conformal cooling channels with optimisation work will produce better quality of the moulded part

Effect of cavity thickness on copper alloy corrosion resistance

This investigation inspects on the effect of cavity’s thickness during metal casting process on the corrosion resistance of copper alloy product. As the thickness increases, the cooling rate becomes higher due to higher latent heat available in the thicker and larger cavity volume. As such the quantity of Dendritic Arm Spacing, DAS and its Secondary, SDAS per unit area becomes higher. This eventually results in better properties such as the higher hardness and good corrosion resistance because its correlation with DAS and SDAS distribution in the microstructure. The copper alloy used in this project is Nickel Aluminium Bronze (NAB) alloy which consists of elements such as the copper, aluminium, iron, nickel and manganese. Sand casting process has been used and the NAB alloys have been fabricated according to the ASTM B148 UNS 95,800 standards with the usage of 1.1% degassing agent. A range of product cavity’s thickness have been fabricated for gating system and proper machining processes have been carried out to prepare the specimens for the immersion test. The specimens were immersed in sea water for a period of 17 weeks and changes in the specimen mass and pH and TDS values of the sea water used was measured. The data analysis revealed that the specimens were not corroded yet for the period of 17 weeks as there are not much changes in the specimen mass. The pH and TDS values are showing changes but these changes are very small comparatively

Effect on Mechanical Properties of Heat Treated High Manganese Austenitic Cast Iron

This work presents an attempt to study the effect of manganese addition and heat treatment on higher carbon austenitic cast iron to form high manganese austenitic cast iron with reduced nickel content (Mn-Ni-resist) on mechanical properties. The combination on microstructure (microsegregation), mechanical properties and the relationship of heat treatment on the alloy were analyzed. For this purpose Mn-Ni-resist (4.50C, 2.64Si, 6.0 Mn, 10 Ni) was melted and cast in the form of Y-block test pieces. Four different heat treatment procedures were applied to the as-cast to investigate the effect of alloy modifications on Mn-Ni-resist. Optical and scanning electron microscopies were used for microstructure investigation. To determine the mechanical properties tensile test and hardness test were carried out. The result indicates both composition and heat treatment affect the performance of Mn-Ni-resist intensively. Microprobe analysis shows some silicon segregation near the graphite and practically little segregation of manganese. The increase in manganese contents developed some fractions of segregated carbide structures in LTF region located at austenite eutectic cell frame, which caused the tensile properties to drop in a small range. Application of annealing heat treatment gradually changed the carbide formation, so is the material’s strength

Shrinkage Analysis on Thick Plate Part using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

The work reported herein is about an analysis on the quality (shrinkage) on a thick plate part using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Previous researches showed that the most influential factor affecting the shrinkage on moulded parts are mould and melt temperature. Autodesk Moldflow Insight software was used for the analysis, while specifications of Nessei NEX 1000 injection moulding machine and P20 mould material were incorporated in this study on top of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) as a moulded thermoplastic material. Mould temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure and packing time were selected as variable parameters. The results show that the shrinkage have improved 42.48% and 14.41% in parallel and normal directions respectively after the optimisation process

Shrinkage Analysis on Thick Plate Part using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

The work reported herein is about an analysis on the quality (shrinkage) on a thick plate part using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Previous researches showed that the most influential factor affecting the shrinkage on moulded parts are mould and melt temperature. Autodesk Moldflow Insight software was used for the analysis, while specifications of Nessei NEX 1000 injection moulding machine and P20 mould material were incorporated in this study on top of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) as a moulded thermoplastic material. Mould temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure and packing time were selected as variable parameters. The results show that the shrinkage have improved 42.48% and 14.41% in parallel and normal directions respectively after the optimisation process

Warpage Optimisation on the Moulded Part using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Glowworm Swarm Optimisation (GSO)

Nowadays, there are various of optimisation methods that have been explored by many researchers to find the appropriate processing parameters setting for the injection moulding process. From the previous researches, it was reported that the optimisation work has improved the moulded part quality. In this study, the application of optimisation work to improve warpage of the front panel housing have been explored. By selecting cooling time, coolant temperature, packing pressure and melt temperature as the variable parameters, design of experiment (DOE) have been constructed by using the rotatable central composite design (CCD) approach. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was performed to obtain the mathematical model. This mathematical model then will be used in Glowworm Swarm Optimisation (GSO) method in order to determine the optimal processing parameters setting which will optimise the warpage condition. Based on the results, melt temperature is the most significant factor contribute to the warpage condition and warpage have optimised by 39.1% after optimisation. The finding shows that the application of optimisation work offers the best quality of moulded part produced

Effect of thickness on the microstructure and morphology of copper alloy castings

Nowadays, there are various of copper alloy specification was formulated to fulfilled required engineering application. The wide variety of specification opening the door for researchers in order to find the appropriate combination of processing parameters, in this case the setting of copper alloy metal casting process. In general, the product specification produced from molten metal process is influenced by its alloy microstructure. In this study, the effect of component’s thickness on the microstructure of automotive part has been explored. Different thickness of specimen was selected as the variable parameters and investigation of its effect on microstructure was approached. Element composition was calculated, added and mixed during melting stages. Then the molten metal was let solidified in casting cavity by normal cooling condition. Specimen was selected, cut, prepared and examined by optical and scanning electron microscope. Based on the results, the alloy microstructure consist of alloy dendritic structure is affected by the specimen thickness. The fracture surface reveals a smaller dendritic structure and shape at lower cross section specimen

Investigation on Microstructure of Heat Treated High Manganese Austenitic Cast Iron

The effect of manganese addition and annealing heat treatment on microstructure of austenitic cast irons with high manganese content (Mn-Ni-resist) were investigated. The complex relationship between the development of the solidification microstructures and buildup of microsegregation in Mn-Ni-resist was obtained by using microstructure analysis and EDS analysis. The annealing heat treatment was applied at 700°C up to 1000°C to investigate the effect of the annealing temperature on the microstructure. This experiment describes the characterization of microsegregation in Mn-Ni-reist was made by means of point counting microanalysis along the microstructure. With this method, the differences of silicon, manganese and nickel distribution in alloys solidified in the microstructure were clearly evidenced. The results show microstructure consists of flake graphite embedded in austenitic matrix and carbides. There is segregation of elements in the Late To Freeze (LTF) region after solidification from melting. Manganese positively with high concentration detected in the LTF region. As for heat treatment, higher annealing temperature on the Mn-Ni-resist was reduced carbide formation. The higher annealing temperature shows carbide transformed into a smaller size and disperses through the austenitic matrix structure. The size of carbide decreased with increasing annealing temperature as observed in the microstructure

The effect of inoculation on properties of modified ductile Ni-resist alloy

In this study, ductile Ni-resist alloy with a minimum 18 wt. % nickel composition was modified. Up to 12 wt. % manganese was added together with 10 wt. % nickel before undergoing the inoculation process at various percentages to investigate the effects of the alloying elements on both its microstructure and mechanical properties.. The results showed that increasing inoculation did reduce carbide formation and further led to improved tensile value and decreased hardness value. Moreover, inoculation led to a uniform distribution of free graphite. The experimental results show the inoculation process refined the modified alloyed iron microstructure and improved its mechanical properties

Analysis of Shrinkage on Thick Plate Part using Genetic Algorithm

Injection moulding is the most widely used processes in manufacturing plastic products. Since the quality of injection improves plastic parts are mostly influenced by process conditions, the method to determine the optimum process conditions becomes the key to improving the part quality. This paper presents a systematic methodology to analyse the shrinkage of the thick plate part during the injection moulding process. Genetic Algorithm (GA) method was proposed to optimise the process parameters that would result in optimal solutions of optimisation goals. Using the GA, the shrinkage of the thick plate part was improved by 39.1% in parallel direction and 17.21% in the normal direction of melt flow