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Cast Aluminum Housing
4

Cast Aluminum Housing

Cast Aluminum Housing

(OP)
Dear Folks;

Many thanks to all those who responded to my request for a grade of cast iron.

Now I need to make casting and machining drawings for a cast aluminum pump gland cover. Could I have some advice on what grade to use ?

Regards Adrian

RE: Cast Aluminum Housing

4
There are a large number of variables to consider, so I will start off with some questions:

1. Is this supposed to be the same design as the cast iron version?  Specifically, are the various sections and wall thicknesses intended to be the same?  Is stiffness a consideration?  Aluminum is about half as stiff as cast iron, so deflection for a given section/wall thickness will be almost twice that of cast iron.

2. Are you designing around a nominal stress value?  What is the likely operating temperature range?  Corrosion environment?  Popular grades like 356/A356 can be heat-treated to moderate strength values, but are not particularly temperature resistant (creep, etc.)  Stronger grades like 319 and 390 have less ductility, and are prone to brittle failure.  High strength/high toughness grades like 201 and 206/A206 have relatively poor corrosion resistance.  For higher temperatures, grades like 332, 360, and 390 are more suitable.

3. Casting process to be used makes a difference.  All of the grades I mentioned above, except 360, are castable, to various degrees, in sand or permanent molds (gravity or low-pressure processes).  360 is a high pressure die casting alloy.  390 is used in all processes.  Do you have a casting vendor picked out yet?  I would work closely with the intended supplier on alloy selection, as they will have suggestions based on processability, availability, cost, etc.  I highly recommend you check out the following website for more information:

American Foundry Society - http://www.afsinc.org/

Under this website, there are two magazines that are quite good for information: Modern Casting and Engineered Casting Solutions.  There is also a Sourcing Guide for finding suppliers.  Good luck.

RE: Cast Aluminum Housing

Also 713 & 771 both are high strength with many advantages on is they do not need the added expence of heat treating

all of the above is very true

we are a small midwestern nonferiuos foundry in Nebraska
www.phxgrp.com ;     

Bill L

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