Flame thermal spraying torches of powder materials allow the application of various coatings on a metal surface. They are widely used for the restoration and hardening of the working surfaces of parts for various machines and equipment.
The manufacturer of thermal spraying gas burners, one of the world’s leading leaders in the production of welding equipment, FRONIUS (Austria) looked for the solution of producing high-quality castings from aluminum alloy Al-Si (12% Si).
Initially, the two main torch parts (burner body and burner handle) were machined from a one-piece wrought aluminum alloy block. Increased demands are applied to such products. Therefore, low pressure casting technology was chosen to guarantee a dense structure of the cast material. Photo 1 shows a cluster of castings (the burner body and the burner handle), as well as the casting of the burner body after machining.
Photo 1: Cluster of castings (burner body and burner handle) obtained by low pressure die casting and burner body after machining
The symmetrical arrangement of the two castings around the center sprue avoided side feeds of metal to the castings to reduce machining amount.
Also, the use of one die for casting two main parts of the burner allowed to reduce the initial investment in production start-up and reduce the final cost of the castings.
Thus, the customer was able to significantly reduce the amount of machining and drastically reduce the cost of burner’s producing costs with guaranteed high quality.
Authors
- Yuri Sezonenko, Eng., Technical Director of SA-Foundry (www.sa-foundry.com), Poland
- Anton Sezonenko, Ph.D., Managing Director of SA-Foundry (www.sa-foundry.com), Poland
