Rapid preparation of ceramic moulds for medium-sized superalloy castings with magnesia-phosphate-bonded bauxite-mullite investments

Phosphate-bonded investments have already been widely utilized in dental restoration and micro-casting of artistic products for its outstanding rapid setting and high strength. However, the rapid setting rate of investment slurry has up to now been a barrier to extend the use of such slurry in preparation of medium-sized ceramic moulds. This paper proposes a new process of rapid fabrication of magnesia-phosphate-bonded investment ceramic moulds for medium-sized superalloy castings utilizing bauxite and mullite as refractory aggregates. In order to determine the properties of magnesia-phosphate-bonded bauxite-mullite investments (MPBBMI), a series of experiments were conducted, including modifciation of the workable time of slurry by liquid(mL)/powder(g)(L/P) ratio and addition of boric acid as retard agent and sodium tri-polyphosphate (STP) as strengthening agent, and adjustment of bauxite (g)/mullite(g)(B/M) ratio for mechanical strength. Mechanical vibration was applied to improve initial setting time and fluidity when pouring investment slurry; then an intermediate size ceramic mould for superalloy castings was manufactured by means of this rapid preparing process with MPBBMI material. The results showed that the MPBBMI slurry exhibits proper initial setting time and excellent fluidity when the L/P ratio is 0.64 and the boric acid content is 0.88wt.%. The fired specimens made from the MPBBMI material demonstrated adequate compression strength to withstand impact force of molten metal when the B/M ratio is 0.89 and the STP content is 0.92wt.%. The experimental results confirmed the feasibility of the proposed rapid fabricating process for medium-sized ceramic moulds with MPBBMI material by appropriate measures.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of TiAl castings produced by zirconia ceramic mould

Owing to their low density and attractive high-temperature properties, gamma titanium aluminide alloys （TiAI alloys, hereafter） have significant potential application in the aerospace and automobile industries, in which these materials may replace the heavier nickel-based superalloys at service temperatures of 600 - 900℃. Investment casting of TiAI alloys has become the most promising cost-effective technique for the manufacturing of TiAI components. Ceramic moulds are fundamental to fabricating the TiAI casting components. In the present work, ceramic mould with a zirconia primary coat was designed and fabricated successfully. Investment casting of TiAI blades and tensile test of specimens was carried out to verify the correctness and feasibility of the proposed method. The tensile test results indicate that, at room temperature, the tensile strength and the elongation are about 450 MPa and 0.8%, respectively. At 700℃, the tensile strength decreases to about 410 MPa and the elongation increases to 2.7%. Microstructure and mechanical properties of investment cast TiAl alloy are discussed.

Improvement in collapsibility of ZrO2 ceramic mould for investment casting of TiAl alloys

Investment casting has been widely recognized as the best option in producing TiAl components with key benefits of accuracy,versatility and integrity.The collapsibility of ceramic moulds for investment casting is critical in the manufacturing process of TiAl components due to TiAl's intrinsic brittleness at room temperature.The aim of the present research is to provide a method for production of TiAl components by investment casting in ZrO2 ceramic moulds with improved collapsibility.Slurries prepared with high polymer additions were utilized during the preparation of ceramic moulds.The stress/strain curves obtained from green and baked ceramic moulds demonstrate that the green strength was increased with the application of high polymer,while baked strength decreased,thus the collapsibility of ceramic moulds was improved.It is suggested that this result is related to the burn-out of high polymer which left a lot of cavities.The experimental findings were also verified by the investment casting of "I"-shaped TiAl components.

Effect of aluminum silicate fiber modification on crack-resistance of a ceramic mould

To improve the crack-resistance of the mould for silica sol bonded quartz based ceramic mould casting,aluminum silicate fibers with the diameter ranging from 5 μm to 25 μm and the length about 1 mm were dispersed in the ceramic mould.The effect of the aluminum silicate fibers on the tensile strength,shrinkage rate and the cracking trend of the ceramic mould were investigated.In the ceramic slurry,quartz sand was applied as ceramic aggregate,silica sol containing 30% silicon dioxide as bonder,and the weight ratio of quartz sand to silica sol was 2.69;the dispersed fibers changed from 0 to 0.24vol.%.The mould samples were formed after the slurry was poured and gelled at room temperature,and then sintered at different temperatures ranging from 100 to 800 ℃ to measure the tensile strength and shrinkage rate.The results show that,with the aluminum silicate fiber addition increasing from 0 to 0.24vol.%,the tensile strength increases linearly from 0.175 MPa to 0.236 MPa,and the shrinkage rate decreases linearly from 1.75% to 1.68% for the ceramic mould sintered at 400 ℃,from 1.37% to 1.31% for the ceramic mould at room temperature.As the sintering temperature was raised from 100 ℃ to 800 ℃,the tensile strength increases,and the shrinkage rate decreases at all temperatures,compared with those without fiber dispersion,but their variation patterns remain the same.Furthermore,the cracking trend of the mould and its decreasing proportion were defined and analyzed quantitatively considering both effects of the fiber dispersion on the strength and shrinkage.The cracking trend appears to decrease linearly with increasing fiber content and to reach the maximum reduction of 28.8% when 0.24vol.% fiber was dispersed.Therefore,the investigation proposes a new method to improve the crack-resistance of the ceramic mould,i.e.,inorganic fiber dispersion into the ceramic mould.

Study on roasting process of zircon-silica sol ceramic mould

Dry stock of silica sol ceramic mould was prepared by using of colloidal moulding technique with an optimized vacuum drying process. Effect of roasting process on the shrinkage rate and compressive strength of zircon-silica sol ceramic mould, and the relationship between the roasting temperature and microstructure of zirconsilica sol ceramic mould were studied. The optimum roasting temperature of zircon-silica sol ceramic mould gained by the experiments is 900~C and the holding time is 2 h. The scanning electron microscope （SEM） observation showed the growth of refractory particles during the roasting process. The occurrence of sintering was observed in the zircon-silica sol ceramic mould when roasting temperature was above 1,000℃.

Temperature influence of ceramic form on the structure of cobalt alloy MAR-M509 castings

The manuscript presents changes of macrostructure and microstructure of plate and shaft castings made of cobalt alloy MAR-M509. They have different values of geometric module M within the range of 0.91 -5.56 mm that have been created with multilayer ceramic shell moulds （MSC） of different initial temperatures of 200-1000 ℃ at the moment of pouring. It has been stated that decrease of initial temperature of MSC and value M causes increase in casting fine-granularity, distance reduction between dendrite branches λ2 and refinement of initial carbides in irregular ternary eutectic γ＋M23C6 ＋MC.