Production Technology of the Internal Combustion Engine Crankcase Using Additive Technologies

The use of rapid prototyping technologies to create new industrial products, of particular importance is the cost and speed of production, a unique opportunity to use cost-effective methods for the production of parts by investment casting. At the stage of pilot production, which is characterized by frequent changes in design, the problem of the rapid production of cast components becomes crucial. This is mainly due to the complexity of manufacturing foundry equipment. In turn, the research and development of rapid prototyping technologies have allowed a new level of optimization and the introduction of new technologies in the investment casting. The purpose of the given work consists in estimations of efficiency of application of technology of fast prototyping at moulding on melted models, estimations of accuracy of the received sizes of casting at moulding on melted models with use of technology of fast prototyping, and also an estimation of adequacy of virtual modelling of process of moulding in comparison with real process of pouring. The work was conducted with the use of cross-cutting design in CAM / CAD / CAE systems. The study size and precision parameters of the casting was conducted in co-ordinate measuring machine. The work has been verified the adequacy of the virtual simulation of the process of forming a casting in the casting simulation ProCAST, in comparison with those obtained castings. The study showed that the use of rapid prototyping technologies with investment casting can significantly reduce the time for making castings, decrease production costs and improve the accuracy of the casting size.