The accuracy of the wax patterns used in the investment casting process has a direct bearing on the accuracy of the final cast part. Wax injection process plays a key role in production of nearly net shape wax pattern. Dimension shrinkage is one of the most significant problems of a wax pattern in terms of dimensional stability in the wax injection molding. This study aimed to determine the effects of injection parameters on the dimensional accuracy of the wax patterns. Linear contractions normal to flow direction and weight of wax patterns were measured and dimensional variations were evaluated. The results highlight it is important that when dealing with thick gates, short packing time appears to be the best way to avoid gate area over packing and dimensional variations, high packing pressure appears to increase expansion and dimensional variation of wax pattern.

In this paper Polyglycol (PG) was used as ‘soft’ template to induce the polymerization of aniline in aqueous ethanol and hence control both the nucleation and growth of polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers. The products were characterized by Transmission electro microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. TEM photos showed that the diameter of PANI nanofibers synthesized in pure water is 100nm while that of PANI nanofibers synthesized in aqueous ethanol is 50nm. It revealed that the volume fraction of ethanol showed really important effect on the morphological parameters of the PANI nanofibers. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the PANI nanofibers showed high crystallinity. Moreover, the resulting PANI nanofibers exhibited an unusual electromagnetic loss at the microwave frequency (f = 8.2~12.4 GHz) . Compared with 1.79, the highest electrical loss, tanδe, of the microparticles PANI at 8.47 GHz and 0.72, the highest magnetic loss, tanδm at 10.93 GHz, it was noted that the highest electrical loss, tanδe, of PANI nanofibers reached 3.26 at 10.4 GHz, and the highest magnetic loss, tanδm, was 2.85 at 9.35 GHz. It might arise from order arrangement of polaron as charge carrier caused by nanofibers morphology and can be used for the potential application as microwave absorbing materials.

In this paper, the relationship between the shrinkage of the thin-walled wax part in the investment casting process (ICP) and the process parameters including mold temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure and holding time are investigated through a series of experiments. The relationship is successfully described by a mathematical regression model which is based on the response surface methodology (RSM). The rationality and adequacy of the mathematical model are checked via analysis of variation (ANOVA) and a sensitivity analysis for process parameters on the dimensional shrinkage variation are conducted which shows that the contribution percentages of mold temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure and holding time are 23.77%, 43.67%, 11.85% and 16.99%, respectively. Additionally, the optimal setting of the process parameters is also obtained by calculating the desirability function. The optimal combination of the mold temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure, and holding time is 74°C, 30°C 25bar, and 5 sec, respectively.

As investment castings grow in size and complexity, control of wax pattern dimensions becomes increasingly important and difficult. Conventionally, mold design and dimensions are re-worked by trial-and-error procedures until casting dimensions are produced within acceptable dimensional tolerances, increasing the cost of the castings.Nowadays, numerical simulation is an efficient tool for mold design. However, one of the critical difficulties in using computer models for the simulation of wax injection process is the lack of material properties of the wax. Material property measurements were conducted in this study that can be used as input in Moldflow. Then, 3D numerical simulation could be applied in analysis with mold design of thin-walled wax pattern, with high dependability. Simulation results of filling time and the location of the air traps were analyzed. Consequently, best gate location and reasonable gate system were determined. The paper highlighted the effectiveness of simulation in filling optimization and deformation of wax pattern.

A novel method to remove impurity silicon from aluminum melt by the addition of K2TiF6 was studied. The mechanism for silicon removal is the formation and sedimentation of Ti(Al1-x,Six)3 phase and the removal efficiency is mostly decided by the solubility of silicon in TiAl3 phase, which increases with the increasing of the initial silicon concentration in aluminum melt. The effect of holding temperature on the impurity Si purification efficiency was investigated and the result indicated that the effect of holding temperature is very finite.