Masayuki Itamura

Development of Cup-Cast Method; Semi-Solid Slurry Preparation without External Stirring Force

Semi-Solid metal (SSM) processing is now considered a commercially successful manufacturing route producing millions of near net shape parts per annum for the automotive industry. Although semi-solid process is currently widely used as a manufacturing process which produces near net-shape metal component, the processes those used for the preparation of semi-solid slurry still take a great deal of time, energy and money. Cup cast method – recently developed by the authors – is able to make semi-solid slurry preparation as easy as pouring water from a pitcher into drinking glass. In this method globular solid particles are prepared by controlling the turbulence and heat distribution in the melt through pouring instead of applying certain external stirring forces, in other common method. In the current study, cup cast method applied to Al-A356 alloy using simple cylinder. Vital factors of this method were optimized by investigating micro-structures.

Development of Generation Technology of High Quality Semi-Solid Slurry by Double-Axis-Electromagnetic Stirrer Combined with Properly Designed Cup

For the semi-solid casting process it is very important to make high quality slurry with high speed and low cost. Recently the double-axis-electromagnetic stirrer is developed as the slurry-making tool. This stirrer has rotating magnetic field (RMF) and linear traveling magnetic field (TMF). This new technology shows several advantages in the quality of slurry. The cup design is also important to make uniform quality slurry. In this paper the new stirrer and its advantages from test report and technology of cup design is introduced.

Development of Aluminum Die Casting Products with High Accuracy as Well as Superior Die-to-Casting Transcriptional Capability by Using Semi-Solid Method

Despite the lightweight demands, precision die casting products with high dimensional/ die-transcriptional accuracy is still made by zinc die-casting, because the conventional aluminum die-casting cannot satisfy the requirement. While light weight precision die casting demand for electric devices /automobile parts has been encouraging the material replacement from zinc to aluminum, it cannot be realized yet. We applied the Semi-Solid die casting technique to the precision casting, and verified possibility of replacement of the material from zinc to aluminum

Analytical Model for Heat Transfer Phenomena in Cup-Cast Method

Cup-cast method is a new method deals with semi-solid slurry preparation recently developed by the authors. In this method, suspension of globular solid particles in molten metal is prepared by controlling the nucleation and growth of solid-particles through the simplest and quickest techniques. In this method, heat transfer phenomenon plays an important role in governing the shape, size, and fraction of solid particles. In the current study, a heat transfer model was proposed and applied to Al-A356 alloy semi-solid slurry preparation. The heat transfer model was based on heat balance consideration between cup and slurry and it was in a good agreement with experimental results.