The Energy SMARRT R&D Program will Save Metalcasters 50 Trillion BTUs per Year

Castings are well known for saving fuel by making all kinds of transportation modes lighter. Equally impressive is the energy savings from casting geometry compared to component shapes formed by other methods. Castings are 30 percent less energy intensive than other component types due to the energy efficiency of forming shapes as liquids and semi-solids. The Department of Energy Industrial Technologies Program sponsors applications-oriented R&D in the energy-intensive sectors of the U.S. manufacturing base to foster this kind of practical energy savings. Lost foam sand casting and die casting of semi-solid metals are two of the latest energy reducing metalcasting technologies that also capture large downstream energy savings in cast component applications.

For die casting, semi-solid metal technology being developed at Worchester Polytechnic Institute eliminates the energy required to make aluminum fully liquid. In a state soft enough to cut with a butter knife, aluminum can be squeezed into complex cast shapes with high integrity. Another practical energy savings is reduction of revert. Revert is metal that must be cut away from castings and remelted. It also includes castings that are not perfectly formed. The Ohio State University Cast View software is effective at helping die cast designers reduce revert.

Seeking More Efficient Melting Technologies

Metalcasting uses virtually every established melting technology, so a breakthrough in any one might not have broad industry energy savings. Aluminum melting, in its various forms, has become so large that serious efforts are underway to discover a breakthrough. A promising improvement on reverberatory furnaces is the stack melter. Stack melters capture hot flue gases from the reverberatory heating chamber and use them to preheat aluminum ingots prior to loading in the bath.

To learn more about E-SMARRT, go to: http://www.e-smarrt.org.