In addition to the industrial-scale casting plants, the LKR Casting Lab also includes furnaces, equipment and testing equipment designed to carry out small-scale casting tests and experimental alloy modifications. All light metal melts can be tested or characterized for their properties such as composition, purity, gas content etc. Proper liquid metal is crucial for the quality of the cast product and the basis for the success of all subsequent process steps.
The industrial casting plants are suitable for casting aluminium alloys and magnesium alloys (mould casting) as well as precursor materials for further forming (format casting, continuous casting).
We use casting machines like:
- Mould casting machines:
- Frech cold chamber HPDC machine (1100 to)
- Kurtz AK92 low pressure DC machine
- Precursor casting machines:
- HPI horizontal direct chill casting machine
- HPI vertical direct chill casting machine
- Further equipment:
- Vacuum casting machine for special alloys
- Crucible furnaces (capacity 5 kg – 50 kg)
- Moulds for gravity casting
- Melt treatment devices (cleaning, degassing)
- Melt testing: spectroscopy, thermal analysis, spiral test, hot tearing test, DSC, dilatometer
to:
- Process-dependent, application-oriented alloy development
- Mechanical and thermodynamic material characterization
- Metallographic analysis and evaluation
- Component development/ simulation/ design
- Process development and associated process simulation
- Tool development and testing
- Component prototyping/pilot series
- Provision of plant capacities (rental option)
- Holistic solutions from the idea to the component ready for series production
M.Eng. Andreas Betz
LKR Leichtmetallkompetenzzentrum Ranshofen
Center for Low-Emission Transport
+43 50550-6938