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A study of porosity formation in pressure die casting using the Taguchi

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Article  in  Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part B Journal of Engineering Manufacture · January 2004
DOI: 10.1243/095440504772830228

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 1

A study of porosity formation in pressure die casting

using the Taguchi approach

V D Tsoukalas1 *, St A Mavrommatis2 , N G Orfanoudakis2 and A K Baldoukas2

1
Department of Marine Engineering, Merchant Marine Academy of Aspropyrgos, Greece
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technological Educational Institute of Chalkida, Greece

Abstract: Porosity is one of the defects most frequently encountered in aluminium die castings.
Porosity formation causes costly scrap loss and limits the use of die-cast parts in critical high-
strength applications. The amount of porosity is closely related to die casting process parameters. A
considerable reduction in porosity formation can be obtained using the Taguchi approach in the die
casting process. An example of the off-line technique used in the Greek die casting industry is given,
with the aim of illustrating practicality and ease of use by industry engineers and managers. In the
thick-walled sample casting studied, the final intensification pressure contributed 69 per cent
towards the reduction in porosity. Among the other parameters considered, melt and die
temperatures have a smaller effect (about 10 per cent), followed by the plunger velocities in the
second and first stages which have only a slight effect on porosity formation. In addition, the
expected quality improvement and the cost savings under optimum parameter settings were
evaluated. The expected improvement in reduction in porosity formation was found to be 48.6 per
cent, while the expected cost savings for multiple casting parts under optimum condition was
calculated to be 71.4 per cent/$1 loss before the experiment.

Keywords: Taguchi approach, total quality control, die casting process, aluminium casting porosity

1 INTRODUCTION In system design, the engineer uses scientific and engin-

Since the late 1950s, Dr Genichi Taguchi has introduced
several new statistical tools and concepts of quality
improvement that depend heavily on the statistical
theory for design of experiments [1–7]. Taguchi intro-
duces his approach using experimental design for [8]:
(a) designing products/processes so that they are robust
to environmental conditions;
(b) designing/developing products/processes so that
they are robust to component variation;
(c) minimizing variation around a target value.
The philosophy of Dr Taguchi considers three stages in a
process development [8]:
(a) system design,
(b) parameter design,
(c) tolerance design.
The MS was received on 9 June 2003 and was accepted after revision for
publication on 15 September 2003.
*Corresponding author: Department of Marine Engineering, Merchant
Marine Academy of Aspropyrgos, Paralia Aspropyrgou, 19300 Aspro-
pyrgos, Greece.
B10103 # IMechE 2004
eering principles to determine the basic configuration.
In parameter design, the specific values for the system
parameters are determined. Tolerance design is used to
specify the best tolerances for the parameters [1, 6, 8, 9].
Several published applications of Taguchi’s methods
in the foundry industry have shown that the variation
in casting quality that is caused by uncontrollable
process variables can be minimized [10–17]. Die casting
is one of the most widely used manufacturing processes
for producing parts that cannot be obtained through
any other process. The die casting process has a large
number of parameters that may affect the quality of
the castings [18–23]. Some of these parameters are
controllable while others are noise factors. Therefore,
the die casting industry can be an ideal place to apply
Taguchi’s test methods for continuous and rapid quality
improvement.
Considerable reduction in porosity formation can be
obtained by Taguchi technique implementation in the
die casting process. Porosity in pressure die castings
has always been a problem and, in spite of considerable
research, design and development, the ever-increasing
complexity of castings demanded by industry has made
it virtually impossible to eliminate porosity altogether,
Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture

Paper B10103
2 V D TSOUKALAS, St A MAVROMMATIS, N G ORFANOUDAKIS AND A K BALDOUKAS
though casting parameter optimization techniques can
limit it to non-critical areas. The porosity formation in
aluminium alloys is of great interest because porosity
not only is the cause of degraded mechanical properties
of the castings but also has a negative effect on the
machinability and surface properties of aluminium
castings. There are two principal sources of porosity:
solidification shrinkage and liberation of dissolved
gases. Shrinkage porosity is related to thermal and
solidification parameters, while gas porosity is directly
related to the feeding mechanism, the steam from the
moisture left on the die or the sleeve and the hydro-
carbons from burning off the oil-based lubricants. It is,
however, well known that neither gas in solution nor
shrinkage plays much of a role in high-pressure die
castings. The most important source of porosity is air
entrapped in the metal while it is in the sleeve or in the
runner or during filling of the cavity [24–27].
The target of the present paper is to investigate the role
of process parameters on porosity formation in pressure
die casting to improve casting quality. The basic steps for
achieving the above target are summarized below:
1. Determine the casting porosity as the quality charac-
teristic. The aim of the die casting process is ‘the lower
the better casting porosity’, minimizing the effect of
uncontrollable parameters.
2. Select the most significant die casting parameters that
cause variation in porosity.
3. Carry out the die casting process under the experi-
mental conditions dictated by the chosen orthogonal
array (OA) and parameter levels. Collect data.
Fig. 1 Cause and effect diagram for die casting porosity formation
Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture
4. Analyse the data. An analysis of variance (ANOVA)
table is generated to determine the statistical signifi-
cance of the parameters. Response graphs are plotted
to determine the preferred levels of each parameter.
5. Make decisions regarding optimum settings of the
control parameters.
6. Predict the porosity formation deriving from the
optimum parameter levels.
7. Estimate the expected cost savings under the opti-
mum parameter levels.
2 PARAMETER DESIGN
The die casting process consists of forcing molten metal
into permanent metal dies in three stages, the first or
slow-speed stage, the second or high-speed stage and
the third or intensification stage, where hydraulic pres-
sure is exerted to avoid shrinkage or gas problems. The
high-pressure die comprises two basic parts, the fixed
half and the moving or ejector half. When the die is
opened, the casting is retained in the moving half from
which it is ejected by pins activated either hydraulically
or mechanically.
Porosity formation in pressure die casting is the result
of a great number of parameters. An Ishikawa diagram
(cause and effect diagram, Fig. 1) was constructed to
identify the casting process parameters that may affect
die casting porosity. Among these, holding furnace
temperature (factor A), die temperature (factor B),
plunger velocity in the first and second stages (factors
B10103 # IMechE 2004
 A STUDY OF POROSITY FORMATION IN PRESSURE DIE CASTING USING THE TAGUCHI APPROACH 3

Table 1 Process parameters with their ranges and values at three levels

Parameter Parameter
destination Process parameters range Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

A Holding furnace temperature (8C) 610–730 610 670 730

B Die temperature (8C) 190–270 190 230 270
C Plunger velocity, first stage (m/s) 0.02–0.34 0.02 0.18 0.34
D Plunger velocity, second stage (m/s) 1.2–3.8 1.2 2.5 3.8
E Multiplied pressure (bar) 120–280 120 200 280

C and D) and multiplied pressure in the third stage
(factor E) are selected as the most critical in the experi-
mental design. The other parameters were kept constant
in the entire experimentation. The range of holding
furnace temperature was selected as 610–730 8C, the
range of die temperature as 190–270 8C and the range
of plunger velocity in the first stage as 0.02–0.34 m/s
and in the second stage as 1.2–3.8 m/s. In addition, the
range of multiplied pressure in the third stage was
chosen as 120–280 bar. The selected casting process
parameters, along with their ranges, are given in Table 1.
Experience reveals that non-linear behaviour of the
parameters of a die casting process can be determined
only if more than two levels are used [17]. Therefore,
each parameter was analysed in three levels. The
literature reveals that holding furnace temperature in
conjunction with die temperature imposed (A
B) and
with plunger velocity in the first stage (A
C) and die
temperature imposed in conjunction with plunger
velocity in the first stage (B
C) affect the porosity
formation in the die casting process [19–23]. Therefore,
the interaction effect of these parameters was considered
for examination.
The total degree of freedom (DOF) for five factors, in
each of three levels and three interactions, is 22. A three-
level OA with 27 experimental runs (DOF ¼
27  1 ¼ 26) has been selected for the present research.
Since each interaction has four DOF, a total of six
columns (two columns for each interaction) are needed
for specifying the interactions. Using a triangular table
for the three-level OA, the interacting columns are
identified in an L27 OA, and parameters are assigned to
columns accordingly [9, 28]. The assignment of casting
process parameters (A to E) and parameter interactions
(A
B, A
B2 , A
C, A
C2 , B
C, B
C 2 ) in
columns is given in Table 2.
3 EXPERIMENT AND DISCUSSION
The use of high-performance and high-accuracy
equipment that would be able to secure the correct

Table 2 L27 OA process parameters and interactions assigned

Run A B A
B A
B2 C A
C A
C2 B
C D E B
C2

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 3
5 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 1
6 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 1 1 1 2
7 1 3 3 3 1 1 1 3 3 3 2
8 1 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 3
9 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1
10 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1
11 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 2 3 1 2
12 2 1 2 3 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
13 2 2 3 1 1 2 3 2 3 1 3
14 2 2 3 1 2 3 1 3 1 2 1
15 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 1 2 3 2
16 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 3 1 2 2
17 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 1 2 3 3
18 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 1
19 3 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1
20 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 2 1 3 2
21 3 1 3 2 3 2 1 3 2 1 3
22 3 2 1 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 3
23 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 3 2 1 1
24 3 2 1 3 3 2 1 1 3 2 2
25 3 3 2 1 1 3 2 3 2 1 2
26 3 3 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 2 3
27 3 3 2 1 3 2 1 2 1 3 1

B10103 # IMechE 2004 Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture
4 V D TSOUKALAS, St A MAVROMMATIS, N G ORFANOUDAKIS AND A K BALDOUKAS

measurement of die casting parameter values and react in

time for the necessary corrective actions was required in
the experimental procedure. Hence, an automated
robotic die casting cell, fully equipped with an appropri-
ate instrumentation and data acquisition and control
system, was employed. The die casting cell comprises a
28 t locking force die casting machine, a holding furnace,
an automatic lubrication system of the inner die surfaces,
an automatic metal loader, a programmed oil unit, a
four-axis robot extractor and a data acquisition and
monitoring system for the analysis and investigation of
different die casting parameter interrelationships. The
test sample was a rectangular plate of AlSi9 Cu3 alumi-
nium alloy with dimensions 150
100
20 mm. This
thick test casting has been selected to facilitate the
experimental procedure. It must be noted that this is
not representative of the majority of high-pressure die
castings which are thin-walled, being usually less than
6 mm, and often less than 3 mm. The shot sleeve diameter Fig. 2 Schematic representation of the die casting pattern
was 50 mm, while the dimensions of the entry gate were used in the experimental procedure
100 mm
2.5 mm. The test casting, including the gating
Castings were weighted first in air and then were
system and biscuit, is shown in Fig. 2. The system
immersed in thoroughly degassed distilled water. All
measures by means of sensors the values of the consid-
weightings were conducted on a Mettler balance accurate
ered die casting process parameters (thermocouples,
to 0.0001 g. Porosity was calculated from the relationship
velocity sensors, pressure sensors). Chromel–alumel


thermocouples were used for the die temperature
s
measurements. Two thermocouples have been placed in Porosity ð%Þ ¼ 1 
100 ð1Þ

0
each die half at 50 mm intervals along the casting
center-line. For each trial condition, three castings were where
s is the measured casting density and
0 is the
made using a randomization technique. The casting density of a fully dense casting having no porosity
density was measured using the immersion technique. (2.75 g/cm3 ).

Table 3 Casting porosity values and S/N ratios against trial numbers

Trial number Repetition 1 Repetition 2 Repetition 3 Average S/N ratio

1 0.79 0.74 0.73 0.75 2.46

2 0.65 0.63 0.67 0.650 3.74
3 0.52 0.53 0.51 0.52 5.66
4 0.60 0.60 0.60 0.60 4.40
5 0.44 0.47 0.49 0.47 6.59
6 0.66 0.63 0.62 0.64 3.94
7 0.49 0.48 0.42 0.46 6.71
8 0.67 0.61 0.59 0.62 4.10
9 0.56 0.53 0.49 0.53 5.55
10 0.48 0.48 0.46 0.47 6.49
11 0.73 0.74 0.76 0.74 2.56
12 0.58 0.51 0.51 0.53 5.46
13 0.68 0.71 0.70 0.70 3.15
14 0.50 0.45 0.49 0.48 6.40
15 0.35 0.37 0.35 0.36 8.96
16 0.54 0.46 0.42 0.47 6.49
17 0.36 0.35 0.32 0.34 9.25
18 0.64 0.64 0.58 0.62 4.13
19 0.62 0.61 0.62 0.62 4.20
20 0.40 0.35 0.37 0.37 8.54
21 0.66 0.66 0.66 0.66 3.63
22 0.35 0.32 0.31 0.32 9.76
23 0.58 0.60 0.63 0.60 4.37
24 0.49 0.50 0.51 0.50 6.02
25 0.62 0.61 0.56 0.60 4.48
26 0.50 0.48 0.48 0.49 6.22
27 0.31 0.25 0.19 0.25 11.88

M ¼ average of all observations ¼ 0.53 per cent.

Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture B10103 # IMechE 2004
 A STUDY OF POROSITY FORMATION IN PRESSURE DIE CASTING USING THE TAGUCHI APPROACH 5

Table 4 Average values of porosity and main effects of the process parameters

Average values Main effects

Process
parameter L1 L2 L3 L2  L1 L3  L2 L3  L1

A 0.582 0.524 0.490 0.0580 0.0340 0.0920

B 0.591 0.518 0.487 0.0730 0.0315 0.1044
C 0.555 0.530 0.511 0.0242 0.0192 0.0434
D 0.493 0.535 0.568 0.0415 0.0338 0.0753
E 0.659 0.541 0.397 0.1182 0.1438 0.2620
A
B 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0003 0.0002 0.0000
A
B2 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0003 0.0001 0.0001
A
C 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0001 0.0002 0.0003
A
C2 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0001 0.0001 0.0000
B
C 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0001 0.0002 0.0001
B
C2 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0002 0.0003 0.0002
C
D 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0003 0.0002 0.0000
C
D2 0.532 0.532 0.532 0.0001 0.0001 0.0000

Data from an experiment are traditionally used to
analyse the mean response. The Taguchi method, how-
ever, stresses the importance of studying also the
response variation, using the signal-to-noise (S/N)
ratio, resulting in minimization of quality characteristic
variation due to uncontrollable parameters [9, 28–31].
Porosity is a quality characteristic of the ‘the lower the
better’ type. Therefore, the S/N ratio was used for that
type of response, and is given by

X  sidered parameters, when they are changed from the
1 n
S/N ratio (dB) ¼ 10 log D2i ð2Þ
n i¼1
where Di is the response value for a trial condition
repeated n times.
As a next step, S/N ratios were computed in each
of the 27 trial conditions, and the values, the average
of each parameter at different levels and the S/N
ratios of each trial are shown in Table 3. The average
values of casting porosity for each parameter in
levels 1 to 3 are calculated and are given in Table 4
and plotted in Fig. 3. The main effects of the con-
lower level to the higher level, are also given in
Table 4.

Fig. 3 Average values of casting porosity for AlSi9 Cu3 aluminium alloy castings under the parameter values
given in Table 1

B10103 # IMechE 2004 Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture
6 V D TSOUKALAS, St A MAVROMMATIS, N G ORFANOUDAKIS AND A K BALDOUKAS

Table 5 Average values of S/N ratios at the different levels (1, 2, 3) and their main effects

Average values of S/N Main effects

Process
parameters SL1 SL2 SL3 SL2  SL1 SL3  SL2 SL3  SL1

A 4.794 5.876 6.568 1.0820 0.6918 1.7738

B 4.749 5.954 6.534 1.2049 0.5795 1.7844
C 5.349 5.752 6.136 0.4028 0.3840 0.7868
D 6.558 5.653 5.026 0.9052 0.6266 1.5317
E 3.647 5.387 8.204 1.7402 2.8169 4.5571
A
B 5.763 5.780 4.745 0.0175 1.0349 1.0173
A
B2 5.882 5.686 5.670 0.1963 0.0159 0.2122
A
C 5.695 5.786 5.756 0.0915 0.0305 0.0610
A
C2 5.924 5.713 5.601 0.2110 0.1112 0.3223
B
C 5.737 5.968 5.532 0.2310 0.4357 0.2046
B
C2 5.786 5.716 5.736 0.0698 0.0203 0.0494
C
D 5.763 5.780 5.695 0.0175 0.0854 0.0679
C
D2 5.802 5.856 5.580 0.0532 0.2759 0.2227

The average S/N ratios of process parameters on die
casting porosity at the different levels are given in
Table 5 and plotted in Fig. 4. From Figs 3 and 4 it can
be concluded that parameter E is more prominent than
other parameters. In Fig. 3 the casting porosity appears
to be minimum at the third level of parameters A, B, C
and E and at the first level of parameter D. Moreover,
the S/N ratio analysis (Fig. 4) suggests that the parameter
levels A3 , B3 , C3 , D1 and E3 are the best levels for reducing
the die casting porosity process variability of AlSi9 Cu3
aluminium alloy. It must be noted that the above
combination of factorial levels (3, 3, 3, 1, 3) was not one

Fig. 4 Average values of the S/N ratio for AlSi9 Cu3 aluminium alloy castings under the parameters values
given in Table 1

Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture B10103 # IMechE 2004
 A STUDY OF POROSITY FORMATION IN PRESSURE DIE CASTING USING THE TAGUCHI APPROACH 7

Table 6 Die casting porosity pooled ANOVA

Factor Sum square (SS) DOF V ¼ SS/DOF F-ratio P (%)

A 0.117 2 0.059 68.655 9

B 0.155 2 0.078 91.035 11
C 0.026 2 0.013 15.093 2
D 0.077 2 0.038 44.692 6
E 0.929 2 0.465 544.813 69
A
B 7.32E-07 (2) 5.66E-07
A
B2 1.99E-07 (2) 9.93E-08
A
C 3.24E-06 (2) 1.62E-06
A
C2 9.69E-07 (2) 4.84E-07
Pooled
B
C 9.99E-07 (2) 4.99E-07
B
C2 2.29E-06 (2) 1.14E-06
C
D 9.10E-07 (2) 4.55E-07
C
D2 7.32E-07 (2) 3.66E-07
Error 0.046 16 8.6E-04 3
Total 1.350 26 0.051889473 100.000

T ¼ M 2 =N ¼ 22:94.

of the 27 combinations tested in the experimentation. This
was expected because of the high fractionality in the
employed experimental design (27 from 35 ¼ 243
possible combinations).
In order to study the parameter significance, analysis
of variance (ANOVA) was performed in Table 6. From
Table 6 it can be concluded that multiplied pressure
(parameter E) significantly affects the mean of casting
porosity, representing a contribution of 69 per cent.
Also, the holding furnace temperature (parameter A)
and die temperature (parameter B) contribute 9 and 11
per cent to the casting porosity respectively. Table 7
presents the ANOVA of signal-to-noise ratios (S/N).
Table 7 shows that the same parameters (E, A and B)
significantly affect the variability of casting porosity
with contributions of 68, 10 and 10 per cent respectively.
These effects are only to be expected if the most
important source of porosity for this thick specimen is
the air trapped in the metal while it is in the sleeve or
in the runner or during filling of the cavity. On the
other hand, neither gas in solution nor shrinkage seems
to play much of a role in porosity formation.
Figure 3E shows that increasing the level of multiplied
pressure in the third stage tends to reduce the porosity
formation of aluminium cast parts. Experience confirms
the very strong effect of this parameter on the air volume
entrapped in the casting during the time it is in the sleeve
or in the runner or during filling of the cavity [23–26].
High pressure reduces the size of pores and gas
inclusions, but on the other hand it causes additional
stresses inside the casting because the entrained air is
under high pressure.
The observed small effect (about 10 per cent) of melt
and die temperatures on porosity is only to be expected
if the effect of shrinkage is modest. Figures 3A and B
show that increasing the level of melt and die tem-
perature tends to reduce the porosity formation of
aluminium cast parts. An early solidification of the
melt in the gate will avoid proper operation of solidifica-
tion pressure.
The effect of plunger velocity in the first and second
stages on porosity formation can be understood by
examining Figs 3C and D. Plunger velocity in the first
phase has only a slight effect on porosity formation.

Table 7 S/N ratio of casting porosity pooled ANOVA

Factor Sum square (SS) DOF V ¼ SS/DOF F-ratio P (%)

A 14.388 2 7.194 73.482 10

B 14.915 2 7.457 76.174 10
C 2.786 2 1.393 14.231 2
D 10.674 2 5.337 54.517 7
E 95.193 2 47.596 486.181 68
A
B 0.037 (2) 0.018
A
B2 0.251 (2) 0.126
Pooled
A
C 0.039 (2) 0.020
A
C2 0.482 (2) 0.241
B
C 0.855 2 0.428 4.368 1
B
C2 0.023 (2) 0.012
C
D 0.386 (2) 0.193 Pooled
C
D2 0.037 (2) 0.018
Error 1.371 14 0.098 2
Total 140.181 26 5.392 100.000

T ¼ M 2 =N ¼ 891:4.

B10103 # IMechE 2004 Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture
8 V D TSOUKALAS, St A MAVROMMATIS, N G ORFANOUDAKIS AND A K BALDOUKAS
The high velocity of the cast metal in the second stage
causes porosity owing to the spray effect and the
tendency to get a jet flow instead of a smooth fill from
the gate to the end of the die cavity. In order to reduce
this effect, the cast metal velocity in the second phase
should be as low as possible. The acceleration of the
plunger from the first to the second stage has to be
designed in such a smooth way as to avoid the formation
of splashes and to expel as much air as possible from the
cylinder and the die cavity. However, the effect of
plunger velocity might be expected to be much more
important in thinner-walled castings, where turbulence
would be significantly more important.
4 ESTIMATION OF PREDICTED MEAN
Utilizing the estimation model of Taguchi based on the
average values of factorial factors and equivalent -
factors, a predicted mean estimation of casting porosity
is achieved by the equation [9, 28, 30]
^ ¼ MðMÞ þ ðA3  MÞðAÞ þ ðB3  MÞðBÞ
þ ðC3  MÞðCÞ þ ðD1  MÞðDÞ
þ ðE3  MÞðEÞ
where M is the total average of trials and where ðAÞ,
ðBÞ, ðCÞ, ðDÞ and ðEÞ are the -factors of factors
A, B, C, D and E respectively and defined as [9, 28, 30]
1
ðPÞ ¼ 1 
FP
where FP is the F-ratio of factor P, and A3 , B3 , C3 , D1 , E3
is the best condition of experiments; ðMÞ is the overall
-factor which is defined as [9, 28, 30]
Ve
ðMÞ ¼ 1 
T
where T is the sum square of trials and Ve is the variance
due to error.
From Tables 3 to 6 it can be computed that M ¼ 0:53
per cent, T ¼ 22:94 and Ve ¼ 0:00086. Therefore, the
Fig. 5 Interaction plots between die temperature (factor B) and plunger velocity in the first stage (factor C)
Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture
predicted mean estimation of casting porosity was calcu-
lated to be 0.25 per cent.
5 ESTIMATION OF PREDICTED CONFIDENCE
INTERVAL
The confidence limits of the above prediction can be
calculated using the equation [1, 9, 28, 30]
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Fð1, , ue ÞVe
CI ¼ ð6Þ
neff
where Fð1, , ue Þ is the F-ratio required for  ¼ risk, the
confidence level ¼ 1  risk, ue is the DOF of error, Ve is
the pooled error variance and neff is the effective sample
size [1, 9, 28, 30]:
N
neff ¼ X ð7Þ
1þ ½uP ðPÞ
P
where N is the total number of trials, uP is the DOF of
factor P and ðPÞ is the -factor of factor P.
Considering a confidence level of 95 per cent for the
ð3Þ casting porosity, F(5%, 1, 16) ¼ 4.49, Ve ¼ 0:00086 and
the effective size of samples is neff ¼ 2:507, the confidence
interval is computed as CI ¼ 0:039. Therefore, the 95 per
cent confidence interval of the predicted optimum is
½^
  CI < ^ < ½^
 þ CI ) 0:21% < ^ < 0:29% ð8Þ
ð4Þ
7 EXPECTED COST SAVINGS AT OPTIMUM
CONDITION
The performance of optimum condition was estimated
considering only the significant factors and interactions.
ð5Þ In this study, factors A to E and the interaction between
factor B and C (B
C) significantly affect the variability
around the mean porosity (0.53 per cent). As there is
significant interaction (B
C), the levels of interacting
factors are adjusted by examining the test of presence
of interaction plots. The review of interaction between
B10103 # IMechE 2004
 A STUDY OF POROSITY FORMATION IN PRESSURE DIE CASTING USING THE TAGUCHI APPROACH
Table 8 Optimum conditions and performance
Factor Level description Level Contribution
A 670 8C 3 0.821
B 270 8C 3 0.787
C 0.34 m/s 3 0.390
D 1.2 m/s 1 0.814
E 280 bar 3 2.457
B
C — 2 0.221
Total contribution from all factors 5.490
Current grand average of performance 5.746
Expected results at optimum condition 11.236
Improvement expected 48.86%
factors B and C, using the program QUALITEK-4 [31]
(as presented in Fig. 5), indicates that there is significant
interaction at level 2. This can also be concluded from
Table 5, where the S/N ratio at level 2 of B
C inter-
action is greater (5.968 dB) than at other levels.
Contributions at the optimum condition shown in
Table 8 were determined from the main effects of the
factors calculated in Table 5. The significant factors A3 ,
B3 , C3 , D1 and E3 and interaction ðB
CÞ2 have a total
contribution of 5.435 dB. As the current grand average
of performance was 5.746 dB, the expected result at the
optimum condition was estimated to be 11.181 dB. There-
fore, the improvement expected was 48.6 per cent.
In order to calculate the expected cost savings, Tagu-
chi’s loss function has been used [1, 31]. Savings can be
calculated when the S/N ratio is known. Lack of current
performance status (in terms of S/N), the cost savings in
relation to loss at the average performance (average S/N
of all trials), can be calculated using the formula
L ¼ ð1  10½ðS=NÞ1  ðS=NÞ2 =10 Þ
100% of L1
¼ 71:4 per cent/$1 loss
where L1 is the percentage loss before the experiment,
(S/N)1 is the average S/N performance of all trials
(5.746 dB) and (S/N)2 is the optimum performance
(11.181 dB).
8 CONFIRMATION EXPERIMENTS
Three confirmation experiments were conducted at the
optimum settings of the die casting parameters in the
Greek die casting industry. The average porosity was
calculated to be 0.253 per cent, which was within the pre-
dicted range of optimum die casting porosity.
9 CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper, high-performance and high-accuracy
equipment has been used in a real industrial environment
to investigate the role of die casting process parameters on
the porosity formation of rectangular AlSi9 Cu3 alumi-
B10103 # IMechE 2004
9
nium alloy die castings. As a significant target of this
study was to give guidelines for the use of Taguchi’s
approach in the die casting process, the level of complexity
of the technique applied was kept simple so that it could
be understood and easily adopted by practicing die casting
professionals. Specifically, the experiment shows that
variations in die casting process parameters have signifi-
cant effects on the porosity formation of AlSi9 Cu3 alumi-
nium alloy castings. The holding furnace temperature, die
temperature, plunger velocity (first and second stage) and
multiplied pressure (third stage) were the influential
parameters affecting the casting porosity of AlSi9 Cu3
aluminium alloy castings.
The percentage contribution of each parameter to the
variation in the casting porosity of AlSi9 Cu3 aluminium
alloy castings was as follows:
Mean Variability
Holding furnace temperature 9 10
Die temperature 11 10
Plunger velocity (first stage) 2 2
Plunger velocity (second stage) 6 7
Multiplied pressure (third stage) 69 68
The optimal levels of the die casting parameters for
optimum casting porosity were calculated as follows:
Holding furnace temperature 730 8C (third level)
Die temperature 270 8C (third level)
Plunger velocity (first stage) 0.34 m/s (third level)
Plunger velocity (second stage) 1.2 m/s (first level)
Multiplied pressure (third stage) 280 bar (third level)
The optimum porosity mean at the optimal levels of the
die casting process parameters (A3 , B3 , C3 , D1 and E3 )
was predicted to be 0.25 per cent with a 95 per cent con-
ð9Þ fidence interval between 0.21 and 0.29 per cent. Further-
more, as the current S/N average of all trials was
5.746 dB, the expected result at the optimum condition
was estimated to be 11.181 dB. Therefore, the expected
improvement in reduction in porosity formation was
48.6 per cent. Finally, the expected cost savings for
multiple casting parts under optimum condition was cal-
culated to be 71.4 per cent/$1 loss before the experiment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the casting experi-
ments supported by the Greek company VIORAL SA
and the Taguchi approach software Qualitek-4
(DEMO) supported by R. Roy, Nutek, Incorporated,
sited at (www.rkroy.com).
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