13th International Conference on Aluminum Alloys (ICAA13)

Edited by: Hasso Weiland, Anthony D. Rollett, William A. Cassada

TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2012

LIMITATION OF SHRINKAGE POROSITY IN ALUMINUM ROTOR DIE

CASTING

Young-Chan Kim, Se-Weon Choi, Cheol-Woo Kim, Jae-Ik Cho, Sung-Ho Lee,
Chang-Seog Kang

Korea Institute of Industrial Technology

1110-9 Oryong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-480, Rep. of Korea

Keywords: Aluminum rotor, Die casting, Vacuum squeeze, Shrinkage porosity

Abstract

Aluminum rotor prone to have many casting defects especially large amount of air and shrinkage
porosity, which caused eccentricity, loss and noise during motor operation. Many attempts have
been made to develop methods of shrinkage porosity control, but still there are some problems to
solve. In this research, the process of vacuum squeeze die casting is proposed for limitation of
defects. The 6 pin point gated dies which were in capable of local squeeze at the end ring were
used. Influences of filling patterns on HPDC were evaluated and the important process control
parameters were high injection speed, squeeze length, venting and process conditions. By using
local squeeze and vacuum during filling and solidification, air and shrinkage porosity were
significantly reduced and the feeding efficiency at the upper end ring was improved 10%. As a
result of controlling the defects, the dynamometer test showed improved motor efficiency by
more than 4%.

Introduction

High pressure die casting (HPDC) is an important process in the manufacturing of high volume
and low cost components. It is also an economical and efficient method for producing
components requiring low surface roughness and high dimensional accuracy [1]. HPDC is the
most economical process to form the squirrel cage of induction motor rotor, but the high rate of
introduction of liquid metal to die cavity generally results in some distributed porosity in the
casting. The gross casting defects such as air porosity and shrinkage porosity may adversely
affect electrical performance, so limitation of defects in aluminum rotor is very important on die-
casting process [2]. Especially shrinkage porosity is the result of failure of effective feeding into
the last solidified region [3]. Many attempts have been made to develop methods for shrinkage
porosity control, such as high vacuum, squeeze, high speed and semi-solid die casting, but still
there are some problems to solve on rotor die casting [4-7].
Most cast aluminum motor rotors are produced with carefully controlled pure aluminum
conditions, 100.0, 150.0, and 170.0 (99.0, 99.5, and 99.7% Al, respectively). The impurity effect
on the electrical performance, conductivity and the occurrence of micro-shrinkage and cracks
during casting had been investigated [8], however, effective method to reduce the air and
shrinkage porosity on aluminum rotor die casting has not been studied.
Therefore, in this work, the effect of venting and vacuum squeeze for rotor die casting was
investigated to minimize the air and shrinkage porosity and increase the efficiency of motor. The
simulations of filling and solidification analyses by using the MAGMA soft were presented in
order to study the venting effect necessary to limit porosities. Moreover, the optimal die casting
conditions using vacuum squeeze process was investigated by using Buhler evolution B 53D die

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casting machine. Analysis of the rotor and assemble motor were carried out with X-ray CT scan
and dynamometer efficiency test.

Experimental Procedures

To investigate the effects of venting system, computational solidification simulation by using

MAGMA soft with finite volume method (FVM) is conducted. The initial conditions, process
parameters and the chemical compositions of casting alloy for this study are described in Table I
and II. As shown in Table I, the melt ladled was about 461g and shot sleeve filling was about
36%. Also, the initial temperature of the melt was 720°C. Plunger diameter and active length
were 50 mm and 245 mm, respectively. The optimum number of meshes used in simulation was
about 30 millions. The real-time shot control capability of die-casting machine provided
opportunity to study a number of die-casting process control parameter that might affect the
quality of rotor. Molten aluminum alloy was injected into the die cavity under the conditions of
0.35 m/s in injection speed until the plunger traveled up to 225 mm in shot sleeve and then the
injection speed was accelerated linearly to the high injection speed of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5m/s from
190 mm to 210 mm in shot sleeve.
X-ray CT scan and microstructure observation were carried out to analyze the air and shrinkage
distributions according to casting conditions. The three type rotors, commercial, local squeeze
and vacuum squeeze, used dynamometer efficiency test under the conditions of 220V/60Hz input,
0~3,600rpm range.

Table I. Process parameters for computational solidification simulation

Parameter Value
Alloy Commercial pure alloy (99.7% Al)
Core ɎǷ50mm
Casting Volume 170cm3
Ladled molten metal 461g
Sleeve length 245mm
Filling rate 35.5%
Plunger diameter 50mm
Locking force 150kN

Table II. Chemical compositions of aluminum alloy (wt%)

Fe Si Cu Mn Al
0.067 0.014 0.0027 0.001 Bal.

Result and discussion

1. Computational Solidification Simulation

The filling simulation was conducted for 2 different conditions, with and without vent as shown
in Figure 1. In case of no venting rotor, the air was possible to isolate in last filling end ring area.
However, the condition with vent allowed flowing air inside of cavity through the vent. Due to
the existence of vent, shrinkage porosity was somewhat reduced at the upper end ring, from

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