SBIR Phase I: Forced Cooling of Semi-Permanent Molds for Fine Grain Steel Castings

SBIR 第一阶段：细晶粒钢铸件半永久性模具的强制冷却

• 批准号: 1621696
• 负责人: Nicholas Moroz
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Wayne Steel Tech
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1621696&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Forced; Cooling; Semi

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of creating fine grain ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) castings using a novel semi-permanent active forced cooling mold casting manufacturing process. With the demand for low-cost high performance cast components for light-weighting applications for the defense, off-highway, automotive and construction industries, new manufacturing methods are needed for the production of steel and cast iron components. This innovation will utilize active cooling methods, effectively arresting the grain growth of the casting within the mold, and resulting in greatly improved mechanical properties, process yield and productivity. Compared to traditional sand casting, this process is predicted to reduce manufacturing cost per casting by up to 40%, and to increase productivity (casting throughput) by up to 150%. This disruptive technology targets the steel and other ferrous metal casting industry, which domestically accounts for over 10 million tons of steel castings annually, with revenues reaching $20 billion. This industry is highly fragmented, with frequent consolidation of smaller players. The proposed technology will be implemented at the foundry level, providing significant improvement in casting quality, operational efficiency, and overall casting yield. The intellectual merit of this project includes the development of a semi-permanent mold casting system with active cooling, the determination of the effects of the active cooling on the performance of the produced castings, and a techno-economic study of the innovation in use at the foundry level to determine to costs/benefits of implementation at scale. The innovation of this technology lies in the application of active cooling to the casting within the mold, and in the semi-permanent mold construction. The main objective of this Phase I is to develop a proof-of-concept casting apparatus and to produce a series of steel plates with varying forced cooling rates from which to determine the effect of cooling rate in the mold on grain size, elongation, strength of the casting and soundness of the casting. It is anticipated that this manufacturing process will produce aerospace grade properties at cast iron manufacturing cost. Completion of this Phase I will enable scale up of the casting process to complex parts.

这个小型企业创新研究阶段I项目将证明使用一种新型的半永久性主动强制冷却模具铸造制造工艺创建精细谷物超高强度钢（UHSS）铸件的可行性。随着对防御，高速公路，汽车和建筑行业的轻加权应用的低成本高性能组件的需求，需要新的制造方法来生产钢和铸铁组件。这项创新将利用主动冷却方法，有效地阻止霉菌中铸件的谷物生长，并大大提高机械性能，工艺产量和生产力。与传统的沙子铸造相比，预计此过程将使每次铸造的制造成本降低40％，并将生产率（铸造吞吐量）提高高达150％。这种破坏性的技术针对的是钢铁和其他铁质金属铸造行业，该行业每年占国内超过1000万吨钢铁铸件，收入达到200亿美元。这个行业是高度分散的，经常巩固较小的参与者。 拟议的技术将在铸造级实施，从而在铸造质量，运营效率和整体铸造产量方面具有重大改进。该项目的智力优点包括开发具有主动冷却的半永久性模具铸造系统，确定主动冷却对生产铸件性能的影响的确定以及对铸造级别使用的创新技术的技术经济研究，以确定实施成本/实施成本。这项技术的创新在于将主动冷却应用于模具中的铸件以及半永久性模具结构。该阶段I的主要目的是开发概念验证的铸造设备，并产生一系列具有不同强制冷却速率的钢板，以确定冷却速率对模具中晶粒尺寸的影响，对晶粒尺寸，伸长率，铸造强度和铸件的声音。预计该制造过程将以铸铁制造成本产生航空航天级的特性。该阶段的完成I将使铸造过程的规模缩放到复杂的零件。