Purdue Research Center for Metal Casting (PCMC)Prof. Kevin Trumble - Purdue University
First I'd like to relate just a bit about the history of the Purdue School of Materials Engineering which has just recently moved into the brand new Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering. The school began in 1911 as part of Purdue's Chemical Engineering School. In 1989 it moved into the new MSEE Building, and by that time had 10 faculty associated with the Materials Engineering School. In 2008 the school moved into the new Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering which is shares with Aerospace and a new program of "Teaching of Engineering". The school has grown to 20 faculty and about 30 degree candidates per year. It has a very high level of expertise in high temperature materials.
The Purdue Center for Metal Casting (PCMC) was established in 2008 and is an affiliate of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM). The are 5 key faculty associated with the center. In addition to director Kevin Trumble, David Johnson is involved in the crystal growth area, undertaking zone melting with equipment that can form complex titanium aluminide intermetallics for aerospace applications, as well as nickel and cobalt-based superalloys. Qingyou Han will lend his expertise in developing lighter metal parts for the automotive industry to the new center by developing die casting processes that can make car parts from heat-treatable aluminum alloys. Matthew Krane works with Dr. Han in the development of ultrasound assisted die-casting technologies to make lightweight metal castings with high internal integrity and that are pressure-tight, leak-proof and heat-treatable.
The Center's primary mission is to conduct interdisciplinary, industry driven research and education. In an effort to achieve this it intends to couple experimental and numerical approaches.
Four major thrust areas of the Center are:
1) Lightweight Shape Casting
2) Solidification processes for wrought Alloys such as Vacuum Arc Casting, Electoslag Casting and Direct Chill Continuous Casting.
3) Investment Casting of Ni, Co, and Ti alloys
4) Specialty Solidification processes
The Michael Golden Labs now contains a vertical Die-casting/Infiltration press with a short distance for fill. This allows for very rapid infiltration which can lead to new forms of metal-metal composites and properties.
The Investment Casting lab has a 5 lb vacuum induction melting furnace.
The Crystal growth lab features a levitation zone melter in which directional solidification experiments are staged. The High frequency skull melter allows the "crucible" to be the same material as the melt, and melting can occur at very high temperatures.
There are also excellent facilities for computer modeling and well as SEM and TEM evaluation of experimental results.
The Center currently has several funding strategies.
Membership in "Industry Specific Consortia" which engages in pre-competitive research is offered at two levels. The premium level ($30000) allows the industrial member to have a vote in what specific projects are developed, as well as receive the results at the completion of any project. A $15000 membership receives the same results, but does not have a vote in what is to be specifically studied.
The Center seeks State and Federal grants.
Sponsored research for specific proprietary industry projects are also offered at the rate of $60000/student year. This research is conducted by doctoral candidates, but will be in addition to their thesis work and not published.
One example project currently underway is determining the Capillarity limit of mold filling of superalloys. Ideally a mold should fill completely without penetration into mold pores.
Another example project involves cast-in-place abrasive tips for single-crystal blades. Commonly such tips are now applied after casting by a deposition process. Mathematical models are being developed to lead to reliable means of casting such tips in place.
Much of the project results relate to the field of investment casting.
So far the first of the Industry Specific Consortia has three participants in addition to Purdue which provided some seed money. NSF and well as DOE and NSF-Goali funds are also being sought to support the Center's efforts.
Immediate Goals for the Center include:
1) 2 more Consortium partners
2) At least one competitive grant ($60000/student-year)
3) NSF MRI (major research instrumentation)
4) Continue DOE lightweight ultrasonics degassing project
5) Nucleate catalysts and magnetic alloys project continuance