The Lawton Standard Company had the pleasure of two of our casting engineers presenting their research at this year’s MAGMASOFT® UGM event.
Lawton uses MAGMASOFT® solidification software to detect any issues in our castings before the pattern is built and before the first drop of molten metal is even poured.
What is the MAGMASOFT® UGM event?
Each year, MAGMASOFT® holds a “User Group Meeting” (UGM) for companies and employees who use the software at their locations.
The event involves presentations on research and advances with the software. Companies and employees present their latest findings all in an effort to better utilize the MAGMASOFT® software and technologies.
The user group is a technical session where engineers can share case studies on the software’s usage and also learn from other foundries and their processes. Lawton Standard casting engineers James Lyle and Lauren Innis were able to network with other MAGMASOFT® users, learn about upcoming features for the product and gain more skills to improve our own uses of the software at Lawton locations.
This year’s UGM was held in Itasca, Illinois.
Lawton Standard’s presentation
James and Lauren made a presentation at this year’s event on refining MAGMASOFT® metallurgical quality simulation parameters for ductile iron castings based on step block experimental data.
The presentation was given during the UGM Iron Breakout Session on September 19th. Lauren and James’ project was the evaluation of MAGMASOFT® solidification modelling software predictions of metallurgical quality for regular and heavy section ductile iron castings as compared to equivalent test castings.
This was James Lyle’s second time presenting at the UGM and the first time for Lauren Innis.
The goal of Lawton’s research
The purpose of the engineers’ study was to better understand the MAGMASOFT® simulation software inoculation quality and how it correlates to ductile iron produced at the C.A. Lawton Co. location in Minster, Ohio.
Section sizes were selected to be representative of typical casting sections at C.A. Lawton-Minster.
The intent is to use the results to modify the metallurgical quality settings in MAGMASOFT® for future casting simulations to better reflect actual metallurgical quality of Minster’s castings. This would make better predictions of the casting’s behavior during the solidification process. Better simulations can help us make better castings and better serve our customers.
A closer look at MAGMASOFT® solidification software
MAGMASOFT® is the comprehensive and effective optimization tool for improving metal casting quality, optimizing process conditions and reducing production costs.
The benefits of the software includes offering a virtual test field to help reduce metal casting defects, allowing faster decision making to save time for all parties involved, improving quality management by understanding how process variability affects quality and improving communication and confidence within the company and with customers.
You can read more about the benefits of MAGMASOFT® by clicking here.
How Lawton Standard uses solidification software
Lawton uses the software to simulate the filling, solidification and cooling for new parts during the design phase. These simulations are run even before we start making the patterns and can help in identifying any issues before a single drop of molten metal is poured.
The first step for our engineers is to run a casting only solidification simulation which identifies areas of risk in the part. This step helps assist in the design of the gating, the metal delivery system and the riser and chill locations. After the gating rigging is designed, the team then simulates the filling of the part.
If an issue is detected, our engineers will run multiple simulations of the design until changes can resolve the issue.
MAGMASOFT® can also help solve scrap/quality issues with existing parts. It allows us to have a more controlled process and predictable outcome, which ensures high quality and reduced costs.
Custom parametrics using MAGMASOFT® software
The Lawton Standard Company has custom parametrics built right into the MAGMASOFT® software at three of our locations: C.A. Lawton-Minster, Temperform and Penn-Mar Castings. These custom parametrics allow engineers to build a model and run a simulation in 5-10 minutes. It’s a process that used to take at least an hour. The long-term goal is to bring custom parametrics to all of our facilities, with the next one being C.A. Lawton-De Pere.
“The accuracy of the simulations are pretty scary,” says Lyle. He said there are examples where the simulation has identified down to within a square inch of a defect.
Custom parametrics are also helping the future of foundry engineers by reducing their work time tremendously. In a handful of minutes with MAGMASOFT®, new engineers can be up and running. This eases the learning curve. Read more about custom parametrics by clicking here.