Aluminum die casting part service

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Controlled Variables

With Arena-flow™ software, now you can:

  • Establish process airflow and pressure conditions
  • Evaluate various sand casting magazine designs
  • Locate and size blow tubes
  • Choose vent locations including size, type, and resistance
  • Specify sand, sand additives and catalyst conditions
  • Select gassing and purging parameters

Arena-flow can help you refine all of the process variables associated with core-making. In fact, you can establish process conditions based on the various equipment types and core-making materials available in the market. You can establish the economic and technical viability of your proposed process long before you are actually required to make a capital investment.

Customer Solutions

Unlike conventional computer-aided engineering technology, Arena-flow™ is available to customers through software licensing agreements or engineering service contracts.

Customers who license software technology can choose one of three options: a license purchase, license lease, or 45-day trial license. Engineering service contracts can cover a wide array of support from custom design projects and, no matter which option you choose, Ashland provides hardware and technical support designed to fit your needs.

Flow Modeling Process  for sand casting china company and aluminum die casting parts

The Arena-flow™ software models both phases (sand and air) of the core-making process. Capabilities include:

  • Three-dimensional multi-phase computations
  • Highly accurate simulation of both air and sand particle flows
  • Analysis of the airfield on a grid
  • Discrete analysis of 250,000 to 1,000,000 sand particles
  • Interfacial drag coupling of air and sand particles
  • Proper wall restitution to ensure accurate particle deflections off of tooling surfaces
  • Computational consideration for sand reaching “close pack” maximum achievable density

Postprocessing Capabilities 

The analysis tools found within the software allow the user to analyze the entire core-blowing machine and process through:

  • On-screen rotation, zoom, and slicing
  • Analysis of core-making variables such as particle volume fraction, core density, and pressure
  • Analysis of additional variables including particle velocity, air velocity, and vent/blow tube performance
  • The display of user-specified parameters
  • Querying of process data
  • Automatic animations

Arena-flow gives you the capability to understand the entire core-making process, including what happens in the sand magazine, blow plate, blow tubes, and core cavity. Arena-flow also allows you to capture and analyze data relating to the performance of various parts of the process including individual vents and blow tubes.

Tested and Proven 

Arena-flow™ technology was developed by Arena-flow, LLC of Albuquerque, N.M. along with General Motors, NASA, the Department of Energy and Auburn University.

Experiments conducted by General Motors using a production core blowing machine for cylinder block water jackets have been used to validate the software. Computations from Arena-flow simulations corresponded closely with measured pressure response at locations throughout the core box, blow plate and sand magazine, including “spikes” in regions where blow tube “fill in” occurs. Time-to-fill was also predicted accurately by the software.

Since the work conducted over two years ago by General Motors, Arena-flow has been validated in over twenty different core-making applications in Europe, Asia, and North America. Utilization of the software is no longer limited to foundry core-making operations. Several equipment manufacturers have utilized Arena-flow to understand and optimize the capabilities of the core-making equipment that they currently produce. Multiple simulations have shown that tooling design and process optimization cannot be conducted without an intimate understanding of the equipment involved. Arena-flow models the entire core-making “machine.”

Ashland is the exclusive worldwide sales, marketing and service supplier for Arena-flow in the sand casting industry. Arena-flow and Ashland have partnered to continue research efforts and software code enhancements with respect to gassing, purging and resin-related characteristics which have a significant impact on the core-making process. Several areas of continued research include:

  • Material Variables
  • Process Variables
  • Equipment Variables

Testimonials

Arena-flow has been recognized by the American Foundry Society as having “the greatest long-range significance to the metal casting industry.”

“Arena-flow approached GM early in the development of the software, and we helped fund it. We understand the value of better core box designs and higher quality cores. In working with Arena-flow, we were able to achieve a 30% reduction in the development time required to design an end core for an upgraded V-8 engine. I recommend it.”