Nonferrous Casting Solutions
While Quasar can be used to test many types of non-ferrous castings, most current applications are for aluminum castings. These parts range in size from rocker arms to engine blocks. Other applications include:
- Brake components - master cylinder bodies and calipers
- Suspension components - knuckles and control arms
- Engine components - heads and rocker arms
- Other components - wheels, links and engine mounts
Quasar detects all structurally significant defects
Quasar detects all of the structural defects that occasionally appear in non-ferrous castings including:
- Cracks
- Hot tears
- Shrink and gas porosity
- Cold shuts
- Oxides
- Inclusions
- Significant gas holes
- Significant non-fill
- Incorrect alloying
- Missing features
- Significant dimensional variation
Quasar provides better NDT
Since a part's resonance pattern provides a measure of the structural integrity of the whole part, a single Quasar test can replace the other NDT methods that typically focus on specific defects. Quasar replaces
- Dye penetrant (cracks, cold shuts, hot tears and oxides)
- X-Ray (porosity, gas holes and inclusions)
Quasar also replaces, or complements visual inspections for non-fill, missing features, and significant dimensional variations. Quasar can also substitute for certain met lab testing to verify material properties.
Special Considerations
Quasar is used for materials that are stiff enough to resonate. In general, aluminum castings resonate very well with the exception of some large, thin-walled die-castings. A simple experiment can be performed to verify that a part will resonate and is suitable for Quasar testing.
Recent work has shown that the presence of oxide inclusions is the primary cause of field failures in most aluminum castings. Quasar is particularly effective for detecting oxides that cannot be reliably detected by other NDT methods.
Quasar detects only structurally significant defects, that is, defects that are severe enough to cause a part to fail prematurely in service. So Quasar will not detect cosmetic defects such as surface cracking caused by die imperfections, nor will it detect surface discontinuities associated with parting lines or tool marks.
Benefits
Quasar provides the following benefits for non-ferrous castings:
- Reliable detection of all structurally significant defects in a single test
- Results that can predict road life by correlating to failure testing (e.g., tensile or fatigue tests)
- Computer based accept/reject decisions, not subject to human judgment
- Reduction in scrap as cosmetic defects are not rejected
- Dry process eliminates need for post-inspection treatment
Nonferrous Castings Economic Case Study
Description
| Part | Knuckle
|
| Method
|
Aluminum Cast
|
| Part Numbers
|
2
|
| Quasar NDT
|
3200
|
| Loading
|
Automatic
|
| Location
|
USA
|
| Amortization
|
2 years
|
| Payback
|
2 Months
|
The part is a cast aluminum rear knuckle tested at 360 parts (180 pairs) per hour. The plant operates 3 shifts per day, 5 days per week and produces 1,800,000 of this type of knuckle per line per year. The plant is located in the United States and all costs and prices are in US$.
Quasar replaces FPI (Fluorescent Dye Penetrant Inspection), which costs $0.80 per part, including the cost of transporting the parts for off-site inspection.
The Quasar system consists of an automatically loaded Quasar 3200 Dual Test Station NDT System integrated into a customer-provided cell that incorporates both Quasar and Brinell testing. The system includes robotic load/unload and mechanical part marking. The price for the Quasar system and related automation was $250,000.
The cost savings are tabulated below.
| Quasar Cost/Part | $0.07
|
| FPI Cost/Part
|
$0.80
|
| Savings/Part
|
$0.73
|
| Payback Parts
|
342,205
|
| Payback Months
|
2
|