Latest advances and developments in aluminum shape casting

With the increasing use of aluminum shape castings in structural applications in the automotive and aerospace industries, assurance of cast product integrity and performance has become critical in both design and manufacturing. In this paper, the latest understanding of the relationship between casting quality and mechanical properties of aluminum castings is summarized. Newly developed technologies for alloy design, melting and melt treatment, casting and heat treatment processes in aluminum casting are reviewed. The mechanical properties of aluminum castings strongly depend upon their microstructure constituents and particularly cast defect population and distribution. To produce quality castings with quantifiable properties, the key is to control multi-scale defects and microstructure in the casting. Robust design and development of high integrity aluminum castings through Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) approach is also discussed. The most effective way to optimize the processes and achieve the desirable mechanical properties is through the development and exploitation of robust and accurate multi-scale computational models.