한국주조공학회

Precision metal mold casting process is a casting method manufacturing mechanical elements with high precision, having heavy/light alloys as casting materials and using permanent mold. To improve dimensional accuracy and the final mechanical properties of the castings, the solidification speed and the cooling rate of the casting should be controlled with the optimum mold cooling system, and moreover, to obtain more accurate control of the whole process interfacial heat transfer characteristic at the mold/casting interface must be studied in advance. In the present study, aluminum alloy casting system with metal mold equipped with electrical heating elements and water cooling system was designed and the temperature histories at points inside the metal mold were measured during the casting process. The heat transfer phenomena at the mold/casting interface was characterized by the heat flux between solidifying casting metal and metal mold, and the heat flux history was obtained using inverse heat conduction method. The effect of mold cooling condition upon the heat flux profile was examined, and the analysis shows that the heat flux value has its maximum at the beginning of the process.