Analysis of Factor Effects in Process of Vertical Centrifugal Casting

The effects of mold rotation speed, pouring temperature, preheating mold temperature, pouring rate and coating thickness on the solidification time, shrinkage porosity and melt velocity in vertical centrifugal casting were investigated. To minimize computation time and obtain adequate estimate of the effects, a Fractional Two – Level Factorial Design 2(5–1) was applied. The results were obtained by numerical simulations using ProCAST software. The regression model was developed using Design Expert software. The analysis of variance revealed that the coating thickness had the most pronounced effect on the solidification time and shrinkage porosity. Finally, the procedure for selecting the optimal factors was carried out by application of multi objective optimization. The shortest solidification time was 20.68 s, while the shrinkage porosity was negligible, and it was achieved with the highest value of mold rotation speed and the lowest values of pouring temperature, preheating mold temperature, pouring rate and coating thickness.