SBIR Phase I: Forced Cooling of Semi-Permanent Molds for Fine Grain Steel Castings

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of creating fine grain ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) castings using a novel semi-permanent active forced cooling mold casting manufacturing process. With the demand for low-cost high performance cast components for light-weighting applications for the defense, off-highway, automotive and construction industries, new manufacturing methods are needed for the production of steel and cast iron components. This innovation will utilize active cooling methods, effectively arresting the grain growth of the casting within the mold, and resulting in greatly improved mechanical properties, process yield and productivity. Compared to traditional sand casting, this process is predicted to reduce manufacturing cost per casting by up to 40%, and to increase productivity (casting throughput) by up to 150%. This disruptive technology targets the steel and other ferrous metal casting industry, which domestically accounts for over 10 million tons of steel castings annually, with revenues reaching $20 billion. This industry is highly fragmented, with frequent consolidation of smaller players. The proposed technology will be implemented at the foundry level, providing significant improvement in casting quality, operational efficiency, and overall casting yield. The intellectual merit of this project includes the development of a semi-permanent mold casting system with active cooling, the determination of the effects of the active cooling on the performance of the produced castings, and a techno-economic study of the innovation in use at the foundry level to determine to costs/benefits of implementation at scale. The innovation of this technology lies in the application of active cooling to the casting within the mold, and in the semi-permanent mold construction. The main objective of this Phase I is to develop a proof-of-concept casting apparatus and to produce a series of steel plates with varying forced cooling rates from which to determine the effect of cooling rate in the mold on grain size, elongation, strength of the casting and soundness of the casting. It is anticipated that this manufacturing process will produce aerospace grade properties at cast iron manufacturing cost. Completion of this Phase I will enable scale up of the casting process to complex parts.