Core box manufacturing for casting

[Abhijeet242]

In case of Casting....for example...a volute casign, the volute core is made using core box. The core boxes and the patterns are made either out of wood or metals( e.g. Aluminium). I wanted to understand,how volute pattern and core box itself is manufactured in Aluminium/wood? How volute shape is obtained on those pattern and core-box? Thank you in Advance!

 

[btrueblood]

Most of ours were made by CNC machining, usually with a pattern maker involved.

 

[EdStainless]

Yes, milled on CNC and then hand dressed using printed and cut templates.
If we were using a cold set system we would often make them of wood (synthetic) and epoxy coat them for durability.
If it was a high-volume part with resin molded sand we would make them from metal. Large ones were Al and small ones were often steel (410 SS or Ni plated).
In some designs the vanes have to be individually removeable. This can cause a lot of wear and tear on the box.

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P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[CWB1]

I would highly recommend visiting a few foundries and pattern shops if not onsite as techniques and capabilities vary. I've had many patterns CNC machined, others 3d printed, and a few cast patternless. Core boxes are often a standard consumable but sometimes custom as well. Money and need drive the appropriate process.

 

[arunmrao]

You can consider using 3D printing pattern and core boxes . I have been doing this for about 4 years. Alternately you could use a 5 axis CNC router for wooden pattern and core boxes.

 

[btrueblood]

Arun,

Do you use a certain material to hold up to sand/wear, or is there a coating you recommend for 3d printed patterns?

 

[arunmrao]

Post printing cleaning we apply a epoxy coat on the pattern for easy release of the mould.

I have used PLA, PetG, ABS etc. for making patterns or core boxes .

We are now in the process of selecting a metal 3D printer (DLMS) technology.

 

[EdStainless]

Foe high volume parts we used make a mold and cast the inserts for the core box with resin.
That way we could make a duplicate or just replace a damaged one easily.

We would have killed to have AM for making test impellers.

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P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[btrueblood]

We've made mold impressions (resin "splashes") of our castings as well. Foundries have a way of catching fire and ruining your tooling, or going bankrupt and putting your tooling in impoundment by local authorities.

 

[arunmrao]

Going bankrupt is more common than catching fire. I have been through that road. After 20 years I had to close shop and now undertake consulting for past 10 years. No regrets though.