1M.E. (Production Engineering.), Department. of Mechanical Engineering, Bhilai Institute of Technology, Durg, India
2Depaerment of Mechanical Engineering, Bhilai Institute of Technology, Durg, India
Investment casting is most versatile and flexible process whose application is rapidly increasing, specifically for producing high quality, near net-shape complex components. The process begins with making of wax patterns which is an exact replica of the cast part then after employing a shell mould, dewaxing, pouring, knocking the shell followed by minor finishing operation. Shrinkage is one of the most significant problems of a wax pattern in terms of quality in the investment casting process. The shrinkage depends on various parameters such as wax material, mold temperature, injection temperature, injection pressure, injection time, cooling time etc. In this present work, the analyses have been performed as per Taguchi orthogonal arrays (L9) in the Moldflow simulation program to find volumetric shrinkage. The signal-to-noise and the analysis of means were used to find the optimum levels and to indicate the influence of the process parameters on volumetric shrinkage of wax pattern. Hence, dimensional accuracy of wax patterns in the investment casting process can be significantly improved through this approach.
Investment casting, Taguchi method, volumetric shrinkage, wax pattern
