DESCRIPTION OF MACHINING PROCESS

Machining is a process when raw material is shaped and cut into a desired product through a
removal of material from the workpiece. Machining is mainly used for shaped a metal products,
but it is also can be used to shaped or produced a product from other materials such as wood,
ceramic, plastic, and composites. The main process from the machining process is turning,
milling, and drilling. But there is also other process involved which is shaping, planning, boring,
broaching and sawing. Nowadays, for the machining process, there is a process that are done by
using computer numerical control (CNC), where this computer will control the milling, cutting,
turning and other operation.
Machining also has been used in producing parts or component of the engine. One of the
component of the engine that is produce by using machining operation is Cylinder Block. For a
cylinder block, it will go through almost all of the sub process in the machining process, such as
milling, boring and honing depends on the parts of the cylinder block and its functions.
For the head face of the cylinder block, it requires a good surface finish, smoothness and a good
dimensional control, so a face milling with a close pitch cutter and a surface grinding is the
typical process that has been used for producing a iron cylinder block. The milling machine will
remove the surface of cylinder block that are not smooth or have a protruded surface by using the
rotary cutters. From figure 1, we can see that the rotary cutter moves in a horizontal to the
cylinder block. The depth of the face milling cutter need to be adjusted in order to get the desire
dimension of the cylinder block. For a good tool life and to increase the consistency of the
surface, a high speed milling with a ceramic as the milling cutter blades had been used
nowadays. It is also can save a lot of time and also increased the production rate.

Figure 1 - Face Milling Process

On the other hand, in order to produce a good load-bearing surface finish and also the good
dimensional accuracy, the cylinder bore need to go through a honing process. Honing is a
process when a honing tool that consist a series of externally mounted abrasive pads is
simultaneously reciprocated along the vertical toward the bore and rotated around the cylinder
bore. The pads of the honing tool can by expand or contract to vary the depth of the cut and to
produce a bore with a desired shape.

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Figure 2 - Tool for Honing Process

Figure 3 The Honing Process in Cylinder Bore

DESCRIPTION OF CASTING PROCESS

Casting is a process where a solid material is melted and heated to a certain temperature and then
poured the liquid material into a mold before cool it to solidify. The mold will contain a cavity
that will shaped the material into the desire shape. The solidified material will then ejected or
take out of the mold to finish this process. The casting process can be divided into two categories
which is expendable casting and permanent casting. Expendable casting is casting process where
the mold cannot be use again after the product is produce. So, another mold need to produce to
make another product. While for the permanent casting, the mold can be use again after the
product is produce. One of the specialty of the casting process is it can produce a more complex
product that the other manufacturing process cannot do.

Casting is also vastly used in the automotive industry including to produce an engine component.
One of the engine component that used casting process to produce is the cylinder block. Cylinder
block can be produce by many type of casting such as die-casting, sand casting, permanent mold
casting and this all process is different with each other and the properties of the end products are
also different.

For the manufacturing of cylinder block by using sand casting, the common method the are being
used is the green sand mold casting. The word Green is means by the presence of the moisture
in the mold. From figure 4, we can see the structure and section for a green sand mold casting.
Firstly, silica, sand, clay and water is poured into the half aluminium block pattern (figure 5)
with wood or metal frame. Pressure is then being applied on the metal frame to compacted the
mould. This process is repeated on the other half of the aluminium block pattern. Then the mold
from the both half of the aluminium block pattern is removed.

Figure 4 - The Green Sand Mold Section

Figure 5 - Aluminium Cylinder Block Pattern

Some parts of the core is painted to seal the gas formed during the casting process while some
are not to let the gas escapes to the outside. To give more strength to the core, the aluminium
reinforcing rods is used. Then, the water jackets and cylinder mold are put together in one mold.
Clamps is used to tightened the mold in order for it the withstand the pressure of gravity when
the process of pouring the liquid metal.

After that, when all the mentioned procedure is done, the mold is ready for casting. The molten
metal is poured into the mold through the smaller hole. The molten metal is fills the mold from
bottom to the top through the riser. When the molten material is cooling down, the riser is drawn
back down into the casting. The risers function is to supply the required molten metal during
shrinkage.

Finally, after the molten metal is solidified, the sand mold is removed to get the solid metal
cylinder block (Figure 6). The sand mold is removes by applying the vibration on the cylinder
block. For a finishing operation, the cylinder block need to machined in order to get the desired
dimension and to improve its surface finish.

Figure 6 - Cylinder Block after mold is removed

Figure 7 - The Sand Casting Process

COMPARISON BETWEEN MACHINING AND CASTING

For the similarities between the machining and casting process is for both of the process the raw
material that is used is metal. Other than that, both of the process also can be used for producing
an engine component such as cylinder block.

For the comparison between the machining and casting process in term of technology, the
technology that involved in the process for machining is more than the casting process. For the
machining process the technology that has been developed is the usage of computer numerical
control. Computer numerical control or CNC is a computer that will operate the machine
automatically according to the task and command that had been programmed into the computer.
So, instead control manually using hand or levers, the creation of CNC has eases the work of the
machinist. In contrast, for casting process the technology is not well developed because of the
casting process itself that remains traditionally.

Meanwhile, in term of cost for producing a product by using machining and casting process, the
cost for producing a product by using machining process is more higher than the cost for
producing a product by casting process. The cost for machining process is more higher than the
casting process because of the price of the equipment and the tools for machining process is
high. While for the casting process, the price for its tools and equipment is not as high as the
machining.

Other than that, the equipment for both machining and casting process is also different. The
equipment for machining is the machine

n sandcasting, both the mold and the core are manufactured on the basis of silica sands or special sands.
In general, the mold is based on bentonite-bonded binders, whereas the cores are based on chemical
binders.
Complicated component geometries even with undercuts can be achieved easily using chemically
bonded mold materials in the core package method. A further advantage of the methods is that costeffective production is possible even in the case of low quantities and that changes can be implemented
relatively quickly.
The advantage of the core package method, where all component contours are represented by sand
cores, is that the temperature of the cast parts generally does not fall below 500C between casting and
solidification. This results in casting that is low in stress to the greatest extent possible, and this yields
high dimensional accuracy.
The low-pressure sandcasting method is recommended for the production of prototypes and small
series. The melt finds its way into the mold via a standpipe and is exposed to a pressure of approx. 0.1 to
0.5 bar. This results in a structure of very high quality since the pressure is also maintained during
solidification.