Improving casting quality and efficiency

A European project team is improve casting quality by revolutionising inspection technology, aiming at 20% manufacturing costs saving and 10-50% reduction in quality management.

A European project team is set to make major improvements to casting quality by revolutionising inspection technology, aiming at 20% manufacturing costs saving and 10-50% reduction in quality management costs.

A European project team is set to make major improvements to casting quality by revolutionising inspection technology.

A group of industrial monitoring specialists and technical organisations are collaborating on a project to improve the product quality and process control of cast metallic parts, aiming to result in a 20% manufacturing cost saving and reduce inspection and quality management costs by 10-50%.

The project, called QUME, (On-line process and QUality optimisation for the manufacturing of cast MEtallic parts), is partly funded by the European Commission and has pulled together the experience and technical expertise of several European research and academic organisations along with specialist monitoring and quality management companies.

The aim is to focus the potential of proven developed technologies and techniques in inspection, testing and data management and to harness them in an integrated fashion that provides the optimum platform for in-line inspection and quality assurance of cast parts.

Maintaining the quality of casting is an expensive business; whilst the majority of castings undergo random or batch testing for faults, critical components need to be 100% inspected before they can be sent to a user or customer.

The challenge therefore is how to improve the reliability and effectiveness of inspection without adding cost.

Indeed, the QUME project team are deliberately aiming to turn the present approach on its head - firstly, by reducing the cost of implementing 100% testing, and secondly, by developing in-line fault-detection techniques that will not create production or quality process complications.

The approach will create a new intelligent manufacturing system (IMS) based on the fusion of two relatively new quantitative non-destructive characterisation (QNDC) techniques, namely; intensity calibrated high spatial resolution (microfocus) x-radioscopy and multi-sensor vibration analysis.

By overlapping these technologies, virtually any casting fault can be detected during the production process.

Process or condition related decision taking will then be possible using multidimensional pattern recognition techniques, coupled with image processing procedures to allow a fast quantitative defect detection and characterisation.

Currently, the expense of NDT systems, and particularly x-ray technology, presents a barrier for many foundries.

However, the project has addressed this in two ways; firstly by designing on-line x-ray systems that are practical and affordable, and secondly, by introducing vibration based analysis which will offer an alternative economy package where investment cannot be fully justified.

However, the project's primary objective is to merge these two proven inspection technologies together using a common software platform to provide an extremely powerful, in-line, zero defect quality system.

It is anticipated that this will provide a significant cost reduction solution for critical applications in aerospace and transport where 100% inspection is demanded, but which is presently conducted in off-line laboratories at considerable expense.

Fault finding is only one half of the quality process.

By feeding defect information back into the production cycle, fault diagnosis can begin to drive automated process adjustments to result in manufacturing improvements, higher outputs and reduced scrap levels.

A working prototype system will be showcased at sites throughout Europe from summer 2004.

It will demonstrate the practical potential for a significant reduction in casting defects, improved quality and performance of cast parts and opportunities for serious cost savings in quality monitoring and production.

"We will soon be in a position to prove the viability of this new technology as an integrated system for real-time quality control in industry," Mike Burrows, Managing Director of Monition - contributors of vibration monitoring expertise and commercialisation manager for the project.

"The next stage for the QUME consortium will be to secure the investment necessary to develop the system to a production model standard.

"We see great potential as we near the climax of this project and we will be approaching industrial partners and venture capitalists in a bid to bring this new technology to market in the near future." The project team has set itself some tough objectives, aiming to reduce scrap rates by 80% and slashing the time for quality control procedures by up to 75%.

If such targets can be realised, it could place the European foundry industry at a considerable competitive advantage over global competitors.

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