Casting process practicals

The course is divided into two parts: (a) production and preparation of a melt and (b) casting (a final product). The first part aims at acquiring skills for independent preparation of a test, thus developing student’s own initiative and ability for developing a technological process. The course also provides guidelines for safe work and relevant safety regulations. Through practicals, students acquire a complex combination of engineering knowledge and casting skills that encompasses all sequences: preparation of sand mixture, moulding, installation and instrumentation of the cavity with thermocouple, preparation of the melt by appropriate grain refining and eutectic modification, casting, dismantling of a mould, sandblasting, removal of pouring and feeding system elements, analysing the cooling curve and analysing the calculations with simulation program, sampling for the analysis of the micro and macro structure, manual sample preparation, observation and analysis under stereo and metallographic microscope. Synthesis of the results through monitoring of the process of hardening by simple thermal analysis as a function of local cooling rate (thickness of the wall of the casting), micro and macro structure, casting defects, phase diagram. Students can take their casting product home. Practicals are meant as reinforcement of previously acquired knowledge in the courses: Liquid state processes, Founding and Materials and their properties.