technique. Added Value of Process Modelling in Development of Automotive Die Casting Parts Groupe Renault, France : Andre Le-Nezet, Nicolas De Reviere Calcom ESI SA, Switzerland : Loic Calba, Badarinath Kalkunte Porosity in high performance >>> INTRODUCTION This paper details below the process simula- castings can reduce mechanical tion aspects involved to pass these stages. properties and consequently Automotive market is very competitive today. The time between the first draft of a car or As an example, a 2011 AlSi9Cu3 Gearbox Hou- degrade both component life and associated powertrain and the first selling is sing which happened to be a new kind then, durability. Automotive Market about 3 years. Reduction of the time to market is considered. Those days the die design was increasingly requests High Perfor- is a daily challenge for OEMs, Renault company developed once the product design was frozen included. The lesser the time one spends on and tuned by physical trial & error methodo- mance Castings with high structural designing and setting up the components, the logy at the Renault Cleon casting plant. integrity and good mechanical sooner the market has a car that corresponds properties. These requirements are to its current needs, at a competitive price. The delivery time and the costs were at the typically obtained with Gravity and mercy of how successful these trials would In the previous decade, only some happy fews end up being. Low Pressure Die Castings. High were exploiting fully the usage of process simu- Pressure Die Castings, due to the lation software. Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) The question being answered in this paper, what process itself is not completely were less user and process orientated not hel- if one were to apply todays state of the art simu- suitable to deliver such increasing ping the cause, and simulations was more used lation methodology on this part and die and go for curative actions than for preventive actions.for a digital tuning? This would then give the requirements. However, because of readers a peek into Renault’s simulation metho- the possibility of mass production With the continuously evolving computer dology, which is bringing an added value in the with reduced shot times and hence hardware, know-how to connect the user development of Automotive Die Casting Parts. costs, several innovations and requirements into the GUI to make them foun- dry oriented, and the ever-changing product >>> METHOD technologies have kept evolving designs and materials to develop light weight around this process, making it a castings, simulations are more important to be To start with, let’s go through the main competitive and lucrative process embedded in the early product development assumption concerning the digital tuning of stages to gain on lead time, optimize costs and this 2011 gearbox housing. 4 different designs for industries to consider. deliver top quality castings. were physically tested during tuning loops Process Modelling provides a wide then. The one considered for this paper is the scope to test several of these >>> BACKGROUND very early development phase called DT1 that technological advancements was not used for serial life of this gearbox. virtually and be an integral part in During designing and manufacturing of cast components, Renault Process Engineering 4 main steps are used for the part & die digital the development of the die casting participates to two main milestones/stages. study using ESI ProCAST 2018.0. parts. This would then enable the casting engineers to be able to both • First stage is dedicated to the Product STEP 1: (Part) Design shared between the MANUFACTURABILITY CHECK predict defects in advance and take Corporate Product Engineering and actions to improve the process/ the Corporate Process Engineering, During the product design, manufacturability design. especially for High Pressure Die Casting or the ability to manufacture the part must be parts that can’t be designed without checked to provide the product designers the having included the process genes. right input. The main problem is that this check • Second stage is dedicated to Die must be done quickly and iteratively since many Design that is mainly done by iterations already exist in the product design Foundry Localized Engineering. without the consideration of manufacturability. To pass these stages, CAD software is The part is assumed to be surrounded by a Keywords: obviously used. CAE software is also more simple die. After a brief analysis of the wall and more in use in the recent years for both thicknesses, drafts / under-cuts, parting line, Die Casting, HPDC, part design, die design, part life duration or dynamic crash validation feeding regions required during the filling casting development loop, digital tuning, and for process concerning manufacturability of the part, ingate locations are identified to die cycling, simulation, Porosity, Workflow, Macros, Automatization, Renault, ESI. and validation. make a filling analysis. Depending on the part N°10 • AVRIL 2019 • 37