Accuracy Improvement of Fluidity Evaluation of Copper Alloy using Automatic Pouring Equipment with Improved Heat Insulation Properties of Pouring Cup

Abstract

  A new pouring equipment for measuring the fluidity of the copper alloys was developed. The developed equipment consists of a pouring cup system with high heat-retaining property, stopper system requiring no preheating, and pouring temperature determination system. In the evaluation of the developed equipment, the temperature of the molten copper alloy decreased by 30K from tapping until the measurement of the molten alloy temperature in the pouring cup stabilized. The temperature decreasing rate of the molten copper alloy in the pouring cup until the pouring temperature was 3.5K/s. The experimental results showed that the linearity between the superheat of the melt and fluidity improved compared with that found in previous studies, and the standard deviation of the fluidity in the equipment was 20mm. These results indicate that the effects of the casting conditions on the fluidity of copper alloys have been evaluated accurately with the developed equipment.