Foundry Practice is Foseco’s technical journal and is provided free of charge to the foundry industry.

First published in 1932, Foundry Practice aims to keep customers informed of the latest developments in our proprietary products and services and encourage the implementation of best practice.

Specifically for aluminium alloys, thermal analysis enables foundrymen to predict the grain refinement and type of eutectic structure before casting aluminium silicon alloys. THERMATEST 5000 NG III is a well–proven thermal analysis device which is quick and easy to use by foundry personnel. It gives quantitative outputs which ensure a consistent level of casting quality. These values can be used to set the optimum addition rates for all grain refining and modification additives and thus to avoid costly scrap due to shrinkage, leakage, porosity and hot tear.

Siemens Verkehrstechnik is one of the largest suppliers of systems for trams and other railbound vehicles in the world. This new Ultra-Low-Floor (ULF) tram used in the city of Vienna is equipped with the newest and most highly developed technology. The FWH steel foundry in Mülheim/Ruhr (Germany) delivers the portal wheel arches for the ULF vehicles.  
 
The finishing of castings and the wheel arch sub-assembly takes place at GGH-Radsatz GmbH in Oberhausen.  
 
The final assembly of the trams is done in Vienna at Siemens SGP Verkehrstechnik.

The ability of ceramic foam filters to reduce ductile iron inclusions is now well proven and documented, however, in order to improve upon the current situation a better understanding of the mechanisms of filtration will enable further advances and improved foundry performance. This paper defines and quantifies the forces involved in filtration based upon physical water modelling and mathematical simulations leading to a fuller understanding of the mechanisms of the process. The experimental set up is described and the mathematical modelling explained. The results of the paper indicate clearly that mathematical modelling can be used to reliably predict pressure dynamic variations when used against water modelling. It also justifies the design and conducting of hot metal experiments to confirm the findings. This can only lead to improvements in filtration efficiency in the future to the ultimate benefit of the end user.

Effective grain refinement improves the mechanical properties of all cast metals, however in magnesium the common techniques for reducing grain size were either not very practical or were environmentally unacceptable. NUCLEANT 5000 is an effective and environmentally friendly product that can reduce the grain size of cast magnesium parts thus increasing mechanical properties.