Make the invisible visible – early on

ZEISS X-Ray Series for light metal casting

Many defects are hidden inside the parts – undetected, they can cause problems later in the process and, thus, lead to unnecessarily high costs. Make the invisible visible at an early stage and gain certainty about the quality of your castings.

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Dare to see inside

During the complex manufacturing process of castings, various defects can occur that are not only on the surface. Inside, they can sometimes have a major impact on the stability of the part. However, incorrect geometries also make casted parts useless for later assembly. This is why it is important to detect defects reliably and early on. This is possible thanks to X-ray technology – with only one scan!

Pores & porosity

Pores describe spherical gas inclusions which are caused by the gasification of e.g. release agents or due to inadequate die venting.

Cracks

Contaminations and an excessively high gate velocity can, for example, be reasons for the development of crack structures or thermal fatigue.

Shrinkage holes

Shrinkage holes are sharp-edged, gas-empty cavities that are often connected to each other. They are formed when the material solidifies. The reasons for this are, for example, too low holding pressure or suboptimal position of the gate.

Inclusions

Inclusions are material components that are usually harder than the base material. They are caused, for example, by contaminated casting material.

Joint & cold shot

This defect describes lines or grooves which are caused by a too low molding or melting temperature, sometimes also by a too long mold filling time.

Incomplete filling

This defect describes areas of the casting that are not or not completely filled in, or whose contours are not clearly reproduced, for example due to insufficient plunger speed or insufficient holding pressure.

Spongy areas

Spongy areas are accumulations of small pores or shrinkage holes which can severely impair the stability of the casting.

Broken core

The breakage or disintegration of a sand core can be caused, for example, by a non-optimal mould material composition or excessive thermal stress on the casting material. This changes the structure of the mold, so that the cast component has incorrect geometries.

Flashes

Flashes are thin metal foils on the casting, caused for example by a too high gate velocity or an incorrectly adjusted clamping unit.

Blisters

The reason for bulging in the form of blisters on the casting surface is, for example, too high a casting temperature or plunger speed in the second phase.

Sand or salt residuals

Often molding sand or salt remains inside the casting after decoring. With X-ray, this becomes visible and the part can be cleaned and then further processed.

Deformations

Particularly in the case of long, heavy castings, deformation may occur during further transport, if the material has not yet completely cooled down. These deformations become visible in a target/actual comparison, for example.

Displaced sand or salt core

If mistakes are made when positioning the core in the mould before casting, the geometries of the casting no longer match the CAD model. The component is, thus, no longer usable for assembly.

Discover all possibilites

With each processing step after the casting process, the costs for each part increase. Therefore, it is important to detect defects at an early stage, using 2D or 3D X-ray inspection in order to avoid unnecessary costs. If you need to check your castings with regard to geometric deviations, you can perform accurate measurements on the 3D data volume.

3D inspection

New regulations often pose major challenges for the industry, especially in the automotive sector. In order to reduce emissions, the focus is, therefore, on lightweight construction. However, this also means greater fragility of castings. Internal defects, thus, have a much greater impact on the stability of the components. For this reason, it is important to precisely locate and measure defects. In contrast to the widely used 2D technology, this is possible with 3D X-ray technology. And not only that: ZEISS computer tomographs can be used in production to evaluate if a defect poses a risk after further processing steps. Early detection saves you unnecessary costs for further processing.

Learn about our solutions
2D inspection

Detect shrinkage holes, pores, cracks, and other defects with only one scan – fast, automated, and reliable. The 2D inspection solutions of the BOSELLO product family are specifically designed for maximum throughput and minimum downtime in harsh production environments.

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Metrology

X-ray solutions for metrology? ZEISS has more than a decade of experience in this field. Examine every detail of your casting: Checking the dimensional accuracy of internal features, target/actual comparison with a CAD model or wall thickness analysis. With the full insight, the possibilities are almost endless.

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State-of-the-art software

Reliable evaluation of defects – Set new standards thanks to modern machine learning software to unlock the full potential of your quality assurance: Not only does the software ZEISS Automated Defect Detection (ZADD) detect, locate and classify defects, but it also analyses them. On the basis of the CAD model it evaluates, whether the defect will cause a problem after further processing steps and needs to be sorted out. In the event that similar defects occur more frequently, the data management software ZEISS PiWeb recognizes this. In this way it is possible to intervene in the casting process at an early stage to reduce scrap and to save costs.

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Dare to look inside with ZEISS

Discover completely new possibilities in quality assurance with the X-ray solutions of the ZEISS X-Ray Series.

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