• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.167-173
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• 2002

The hydrogen gas pick-up problem that can occur during Lost Foam Casting was investigated by reduced pressure test and practical Lost Foam Casting. The proper test pressure of reduced pressure test was determined by experiments not to use polystyrene and gas contents of the melt were calculated from density measurement results. The results showed that the hydrogen pick-up increased with the increased amount of polystyrene that was replaced by melt. The hydrogen pick-up was larger in the case of no degassed melt than that of degassed melt. So the hydrogen pick-up depended on the initial hydrogen content of the melt and the contact time of the melt with the decomposed gas phase. The mold evacuation decreased the hydrogen pick-up and increased the flow length of melt during Lost Foam Casting. And the error of calculated hydrogen pick-up was calculated by numerical method.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2004

The effects of casting condition and hot melt glue during Lost Foam Casting were investigated on the fluidity of Al alloy melt. The fluidity increased linearly with increasing pouring temperature in thick castings but non-linearly in thin casting due to the difference in main heat flow direction. The metal flow velocity was in range of $0.5{\sim}2.7$ cm/s in no evacuation condition and the minimum value of it was measured after the melt flow through the hot melt barrier. The mold evacuation improved the metal flow velocity by around $0.5{\sim}1$ cm/s. And the reaction zone layer thickness was about 1 cm in no-evacuation conditions but about 0.6 cm in mold evacuation condition of 710 torr due to the easier removal of pyrolsis product of EPS. And hot melt barrier thickness of 0.6 mm increased the reaction zone layer thickness up to about 2.5 cm. The fluidity decreased remarkably with an enlarged thickness of hot melt due to a lot of pyrolysis products.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.94-100
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• 2004

Gas porosity which is a common defect in aluminum alloy casting, is also thought to be severer in aluminum alloy castings produced by lost foam process due to the pyrolysis of the polystyrene foam pattern during pouring. Fundamental experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of process variables such as the melt treatment, the cooling rate and pouring temperature on the density and mechanical properties in A356.2 castings with simple bar shape. The density of grain refined specimen was slightly lower than that of degassed one, but was higher than that of no treated one and that of shot ball packed specimen was higher than the other specimens. The tensile strength and elongation were in the ranges of $200{\sim}230MPa$ and $0.5{\sim}1.5%$ respectively. The density and hardness of lost foam cast specimens decreased with increase in pouring temperature.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.186-192
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• 2017

The lost foam casting method was used to fabricate Al-Si alloy thin sheet specimens; the effects of chemical composition and process variables on the mold filling and mechanical properties were investigated. The mold filling capability was observed to be proportional to the pouring temperature, and both the vibration imposed during the casting and the application of a pattern coating had rather negative effects. The mold filling capability also decreased with the addition of Mg or TiB. When the Mg content increased, the tensile strength of the cast alloy was enhanced, but the elongation decreased. However, after T6 heat treatment, both the strength and the elongation were improved. TiB addition for grain refining or pattern coating did not significantly affect the tensile properties.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.268-275
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• 2003

The mechanism of the hydrogen gas pore formation was investigated in Lost Foam Casting of Al-alloy by reduced pressure test and real casting. The hydrogen gas pick-up was affected by the formed gas during the decomposition of polystyrene in addition to the liquid product. It depended on pouring temperature and a proper temperature of metal front gave the minimum hydrogen pick-up. At a low pouring temperature, the hydrogen went into the melt mainly from entrapped liquid product of polystyrene but pores were formed from the gas as well as the liquid product at a high pouring temperature. The mold flask evacuation down to 710torr decreased the gas porosity down by around 0.4% vol%. The entrapped decomposition product of polystyrene in the melt was observed through the visualization of filling behavior of Al alloy-melt with the high speed camera.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.137-143
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• 2002

Silica sand, zircon sand, and steel shots were used as mold packing materials in lost foam casting of the aluminum alloy bar. Vibration acceleration in three directions and temperatures in the casting and mold were measured, and packing and cooling characteristics of these materials were investigated. Packing densities increased with increase in vibration magnitude and time, and were $1.41{\sim}1.49g/cm^2$ for silica sand, $2.54{\sim}2.86g/cm^2$ for zircon sand, and $3.92{\sim}4.52g/cm^2$ for steel shots. Sound castings were obtained only without evacuation of the flask during pouring. Solidification time became faster in order of silica sand, zircon sand and steel shot packing because steel shot has the highest cooling capacity of them. Solidification time of steel shot packing was shortened to about 1/2 of silica sand packing. Cooling capacity of sand mold was generally evaluated by heat diffusivity of the mold, however could be simply evaluated with specific heat per unit volume of the packing material in lost foam casting.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.153-158
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• 2016

The lost foam casting process was used to fabricate Al-Si-Mg cast specimens, and the effects of the chemical composition and process variables on the tensile properties and the mold filling ability were investigated. Some porosity formation was observed in thick sections of the casting and better tensile properties were obtained for thin sections, presumably because of their lower porosity and the higher cooling rate. Tensile properties were not clearly enhanced by grain refining treatment with Ti; however, the elongation was significantly improved by Sr modification of the Al-Si-Mg alloy. The mold filling distance was generally proportional to the pouring temperature of the melt, and the distance was also increased by the addition of Ti.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.322.2-322
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• 2002

Vibration table is required to obtain high packing density in lost form casting process. Packing density, which is important manufacture factor, depends on the vibration pattern induced by vibration table. In general, circular vibration pattern is recognized as the best pattern. The existing vibration table is investigated to identify current vibration pattern and consider a countermeasure. Modal test is utilized to identify the dynamic characteristics of vibration table, and finite element method is used to present the improved design

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.87-93
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• 2019

The effects of mold materials on the microstructure and tensile properties were investigated to develop a mass production technique of aluminum alloy parts with excellent mechanical properties using a lost foam casting method. The microstructures of the plate-shaped cast alloy showed a tendency to be finer in proportion to the thickness of the plate, and a remarkably fine structure was obtained by applying a steel chill or a ball as a mold material compared to general sand. When a steel ball was used, it was observed that the larger the ball, the finer the cast structure and the better the tensile properties. The microstructure and tensile properties of the cast parts with complex shapes were greatly affected by the gating system, but the positive effects of the steel chill and the steel ball as a mold material were clear.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.165-174
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• 2004

The pore formation characteristic of Mg alloy during Lost Foam Casting(LFC) was investigated with reduced pressure test and real casting, which was compared with the results of previous work for Al alloy. Cast Mg alloys in LFC had much lower porosities in comparison with those of Al alloys. Also, the proper pouring temperature gave the minimum porosity like Al alloy although it was higher than that of Al alloys due to the worse fluidity of Mg alloy. The pore formation mechanism of Mg alloy in LFC was similar to that of AI alloy but the critical temperature showing the different mechanism is higher than that of Al alloy as much as $30{\sim}50^{\circ}C$. The result that Mg alloy in LFC had the lower porosity comparing with Al alloy was due to the extra solubility of hydrogen gas although the solubility of Al alloy was easily exceeded by the external sources like pyrolyzed polystyrene products. The mold evacuation gave the lower porosity due to the removal of polystyrene pyrolysis products, and reduced shrinkage defects. Also, there was a proper evacuation pressure that gave a porosity of almost 0vol%. But much higher vacuum degree than this proper pressure caused the severe entrapment of polymer pyrolysis products that gave the large porosity.