Foundry — Metal Casting

Eco Squared Solutions, Inc. (ESSI) has combined nearly 30 years of foundry industry and metal casting experience with 5 additional years committed towards developing new technologies to address cost-driving foundry issues.

The result is a brand-new patented process and equipment that allows for extremely precise temperature control adjustments. With this new and affordable capability, a foundry can gain competitive advantage, both domestically and internationally, by being able to cast new alloy combinations and new precision parts that are not possible given current capabilities. ESSI’s goal is to provide our domestic foundry industry with new tools to relieve the intense cost, profitability and capability issues that have driven many long standing businesses to close or seek solutions overseas. We call this patented method and apparatus: Eco Chill™ Adjustable Directional and Rapid Cooling Process. This method and equipment is designed to address the root causes of foundry limitations by adding controls to very accurately regulate:

  1. Rapid Solidification Rate
  2. Control & Directional Solidification

How:

  1. Custom Engineered Casting Equipment
  2. Optimized Control of Coolant Flow and,
  3. Tailored Mold Packing Media

Eco Chill™ provides simple and cost effective means to help you:

  • Reduced Operating Costreduced set-up time, reduced scrap and scrap handling costs, reduced resin requirements, reduced media cleaning/disposal and reduced labor handling
  • Better Partsminimize porosity, optimize mechanical properties and cast previously uncastable alloys and uncastable shapes
  • Reduced Scrap Rate / Higher Yields – properly cast each pour
  • Reduced Cooling Times / Increased Production – more parts per hour
  • Reduced Set-Up Time / Increased Operating Simplicitybypass the reliance on traditional sand packing/compacting molds in heavy and hard-to-handle flasks
  • Reduced EPA Issues / Simplify Environment Compliance– reduce the need for resins and resulting VOC’s from packing sand/media and reduce sand compaction time as well as reduce attendant health and safety regulatory compliance issues

 

Putting Eco Chill™ into Production

Watch a clip of our recent successful beta test of the Eco Chill™ system.

In June of 2013 we completed the fabrication of our first Eco Chill™ production line apparatus, and in August 2013 we completed our beta-site lost foam production line test at an aluminum foundry in the state of Washington, where our system was easily configured to run on their equipment and production line.Complex shapes with various thicknesses were intentionally selected for casting in order to analyze effectiveness of the system. Using Eco Chill™ a wider range of thickness differentials can be achieved with a single part. We successfully cast thicknesses ranging from 2” square down to 3/8” thick all on the same single tree. Additionally several 50-lb. trees were poured. The cooling times experienced in the Washington beta test were reduced by approximately 75% from their current casting operations and with less resulting scrap. In fact, minimal scrap was encountered during these tests.

Historically the lost foam casting process has been known to be more economical than either the more expensive permanent-mold or metal-forging techniques. However, there have been several drawbacks and limits inherent in the lost foam process: the solidification of parts takes longer; the cast parts often require secondary operations (e.g. heat treatment or machining); and most important is the inability of the lost foam process to produce parts that meet the standards and mechanical properties of higher-end parts. Eco Chill™ provides a remedy to these shortcomings inherent in the lost foam casting process.

Independent Testing

The effectiveness of ESSI’s Eco Chill™ system has been tested by independent labs in order to measure the type and degree of improvements relative to several traditional casting methods. The tables below summarize the reports from independent lab testing and certification of the products from Eco Chill’s™ Washington beta test. The tests measured the most essential properties of a foundry’s capability: yield, elongation, and ultimate tensile strength. The ESSI results are compared to what is routinely achieved in lost foam casting.

ESSI SAMPLE #1. Aluminum Alloy A356 – T6

Property Measured Industry STANDARD Our Test Result % Difference from Standard
YIELD (ksi) 24.0 38.0 58% improved
TENSILE (ksi) 34.0 42.4 25% improved
ELONGATION (%) 3.5% 7.1% 103% improved

ESSI SAMPLE #2. Aluminum Alloy A356 – T6

Property Measured Industry STANDARD Our Test Result % Difference from Standard
YIELD (ksi) 24.0 37.7 57% improved
TENSILE (ksi) 34.0 41.9 23% improved
ELONGATION (%) 3.5% 6.4% 83% improved

View the report from the material tensile/break test.

The industry standards referenced above are issued by USAMP, a collaborative organization of Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors, whose mission is to cooperatively explore and apply new metals that will increase the strength and reduce the weight of consumer automobiles, thereby improving fuel economy. These comparative charts clearly demonstrate the advantages of the Eco Chill™ system versus industry standard casting methods.

View the report of the USAMP comparison of materials.

 

Eco Chill™ Advantages

When comparing the USAMP goals with the Eco Chill™ results, 4 things become immediately clear:

  1. Eco Chill™ is a less expensive casting method. Our production uses the inherently more economical ‘lost foam’ method versus the more expensive ‘permanent mold (PM)’ or ‘forging’. The industry relies on PM and Forging because of the inability of traditional lost foam casting methods to produce the stringent mechanical properties required.
  2. Time to make the part is halved. Our Eco Chill™ system casts the parts from pour to cool handling within 7 minutes, while the traditional benchmark is 22 minutes. That’s a 68% decrease in cycle time.
  3. Adjustability and localized control are improved. Eco Chill™ has the ability to adjust and control the cooling locally in the mold no matter how complex the shape. This permits a balanced and equal cooling rate despite the shape, thickness and location within the part.
  4. New control over mechanical properties is enabled. By using Eco Chill™, parts can be made with new expanded mechanical properties and can now avoid typical tradeoffs in tensile strength and yield. For example, achieving high tensile strength in apart typically comes at the expense of a lower elongation percentage. With Eco Chill™ that is no longer a limiting production trade-off, and now parts can be cast with both increasing elongation and tensile strength.

Currently ESSI is in final discussions for full production status of this beta test facility, and we are beginning the commercialization of the technology, targeting foundries and OEMs who use ‘lost foam’ casting methods.

Please contact ESSI for an operational suitability assessment to help you assess the potential of the Eco Chill™ system for your operations.

Eco Chill™ Presentation

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