Petrov A.Y. Current State and Development Prospects of Russia's Foundry Industry

On the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of BelNIIlit Institute Unitary Enterprise

Kulbovsky I.K. et al. Production of Spheroidal and Vermicular Graphite Iron without Using Magnesium-Containing Inoculants
A method of inoculating cast iron by introducing a mixture containing silicobarium and silicocalcium to enhance cast iron's mechanical properties by obtaining vermicular and spheroidal graphite in its structure is presented. The mixture is introduced to cast iron melt in an amount of 1.5 to 2.5% of its mass with a silicobarium content of 40 to 60% in the mixture.

Pankratov V.A. Obtaining an Optimal Structure in Heat-Resistant Alloys at Directional High-Speed Crystallization
Casting of grade ЖС-26 heat-resistant alloy by the methods of directional and high-speed directional crystallization was investigated. The obtained data show that optimal structures and properties of heat-resistant alloys form at directional crystallization and monocrystal casting by the method of high-speed directional crystallization at a rate of R = 5…10 mm/min.

Vasenin V.I. Determining Heat Resistance of Aluminum-Silicon Piston Alloys
Mechanical properties of castings from aluminum-silicon piston alloys at 20° and 300°C have been determined. It has been shown that the strength and hardness at 300°C is to be determined after ageing castings at that temperature for 100 h. It has been found that the strength values of piston alloys at 300°C given in literature are overstated by almost 2 times. Hardness at 300°C is to be determined at holding under load for 30 s, but not 1 h.

Yurin Y.M. Design of Steel Casting Cooling in Sand Molds
The articles provides nomograms for determining cooling time after solidification of flat wall, cylinder and ball type steel castings in dry sand molds to a specified relative temperature.

Finkelshtein A.B. et al. Designing Shrinkage Gaps in Composite Castings Formation mechanism of shrinkage gaps between filler particles and matrix metal in composite castings made by the vacuum impregnation method was investigated. It was found that the shrinkage gap forms after full crystallization of the melt. A physical model for calculating the size of shrinkage gap has been worked out. Analysis of the calculation and experimental data on the size of shrinkage gap showed their satisfactory convergence. Effect of pouring temperature, porosity and filler fraction on the size of shrinkage gap has been investigated. Possibility to indirectly determine temperature at the melt motion front by the average size of shrinkage gap is shown.

Foundry Manufacture of OAO Sibelektromotor

Blinnikov A.Y. Method of Operational-and-Technological Casting Quality Management Using Neural Networks
A new method of operational-and-technological casting quality management based on using static neural networks notable for the possibility of on-line application, advantages of parallel computations, no necessity of complex formalized descriptions of the objects and metalcasting processes being analyzed, simplicity of implementing on a PC is discussed.

Bähr R. et al. Virtual Development of Cast Products (Practical Examples)

Ogorodnikova O.M. et al. Computer Simulation of Hot Cracks in Cast Parts
The questions of stress simulation in steel castings are viewed in the article; literature data concerning foundation and prediction the hot cracks in low alloyed steels are summarized; the computer simulation results for shrinkage defects and hot cracks in steel castings are performed; the algorithm for constrained simulation of temperature and stress fields in a common finite element mesh during solidification is developed.

Development Prospects of China's Foundry Industry

Trends and Structure in the Brazilian Foundry Industry