Foundry Technology

At the end of this course, the students should be able to: 1. appreciate the importance and uniqueness of foundry technology as a manufacturing process; 2. distinguish between foundry and casting; 3. describe departments in typical foundry shop and their functions; 4. highlight the application of scientific principles in design of gating and rising system. 5. demonstrate skilfulness in charge calculations; 6. identify design and operational casting defects, their causes and preventive remedies; and 7. derive a typical process flowchart of foundry production.

Historical development of foundry technology. Situating casting as an important manufacturing process. Distinguishing foundry as an establishment and casting as both as process and product. Bases for classification of foundries: ferrous and non-ferrous, captive and jobbing. Application of scientific principles such as law of continuity, Bernoulli equation, and Torricelli equation in the design of gating and rise-ring system in a casting. Directional solidification. Casting methods: sand, investment, pressure, vacuum and permanent mould casting. Various departments in foundry and their functions, process selection, design and specification. Determination of casting techniques, mould and core making, pattern making, furnace charge, casting and finishing; charge calculation, casting defects: design and operation defects, definitions, preventive and curative measure to casting defects.