1. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 1 Adaptive Thermal Analysis System Metallurgical Process Control for Gray and Ductile Iron Derivative and Calorimetric Thermal Analysis combined with Applied Artificial Intelligence Developed by NovaCast AB in cooperation with Swedish Foundry Association

2. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 2 Process Control? Are you a “blind” foundryman? Day 1: C = 3,4 % Si = 2,1 %, 1380 C Scrap rate = 2,0 %. All measured data OK! Day 2: C = 3,4 % Si = 2,1 %, 1380 C Scrap rate = 12,0 % All measured data OK! The problem is that essential data are not measured and knowledge is lacking. The foundryman can not see what he should see!

3. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 3 Factors influencing Metallurgical Quality Chemical composition Charge materials and composition (Combined & Free C) Charging sequence and temperature / time ratios Iron handling and treatment practice Pouring temperature and inoculation practice Presence and amount of reaction products Thermal properties of alloy, mould and core(s) Mould / Core hardness / Weighting Methoding (gating, feeding, feeding paths, etc.) Shake-out time It is understandable that the properties vary between melts.

4. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 4 Why chemistry is not enough Spectrometer only shows amount per element! No info about compounds! No info about nucleation properties! No info about graphite precipitation! Tramp elements often not analysed Are spectrometer readings reliable? C, Si The purpose of ATAS is to open a new window into the metallurgical process. Melts with identical chemistry can behave completely different when poured! It is the combination of advanced thermal analysis and chemistry that makes efficient process control possible.

5. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 5 Metallurgy Related Problems Macro- and micro shrinkages, porosity Chill and intercellular carbides Graphite shape and matrix Expansion penetration Certain slag and gas-related defects Fluidity, castability Strength, hardness, machinability Nodularity, Nodule Count About 40% of all scrap has metallurgical causes!

6. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 6 Ideal Metallurgical Process Control Measure essential metallurgical parameters Interpret actual data Predict final results Learn from experience Adjust according to suggested corrections Advisory system increases knowledge Increased awareness / Tutorial ATAS is designed to fulfill these requirements

7. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 7 Constitution Diagram & TA Traditional thermal analysis uses tellurium-coated cups. Carbon precipitates as Fe 3 C. Easy to detect temperature arrests and to calculate CEL, C and Si. Does not tell us anything about the most important feature, namely how carbon is precipitated into graphite.

8. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 8 Cooling Curves in ATAS ATAS uses cooling curves from ”gray” samples. It is when carbon is allowed to solidify as graphite that relevant information can be revealed from the curve.

9. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 9 The Metallurgical “fingerprint” Each melt is an “individual”. The cooling curve can be regarded as its thermodynamic fingerprint.

10. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 10 Learning from observations Induction... is the process of finding general rules and combinations by recognizing and combining specific cases. Deduction... is the process of using general rules in order to achieve an outcome about a specific case. ATAS uses applied artificial intelligence to discover rules from process data using INDUCTION. Rules are then applied using DEDUCTION.

11. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 11 Induced Rules in ATAS These seven rules have been induced from some 100 samples. The inductive learning method was used during the development of the rules used by the Expert System in ATAS.

12. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 12 Rule-based Expert System IF amount of primary austenite is > 20 % (first cond.) AND liquidus is > (maxliquidus + 10) (second cond.) AND first derivative start eutectic < min TES (third cond.) THEN Risk for MACRO SHRINKAGE is HIGH (conclusion) Rules that have been discovered by induction of examples are transformed into so-called production rules and used in ATAS. This slide shows a typical rule. The threshold values are stored in the alloy database and can be adjusted to various conditions in the foundry.

13. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 13 Properties vary although chemistry is constant! Samples taken from base iron at random intervals during the day.

14. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 14 Making the Casting Process Reliable Verify Verify the process by providing information about essential parameters Optimize Optimize all process stages. ATAS provides relevant process data Adjust Adjust the process by allowing accumulative storage of experience

15. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 15 1st derivative for a good DI

16. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 16 Graphite Precipitation Pattern

17. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 17 1st derivative “bad” DI

18. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 18 Graphite Pattern for a “bad” DI

19. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 19 Verify the melt before pouring (Quality Assurance) Reduce scrap caused by metallurgical problems Improve yield Minimize risk for unexpected problems Find OPTIMAL process parameters and threshold values Reduce costs for charge materials Quality control for Inoculants, FeSiMg etc. Reduce variations in physical properties continued.. General Applications for ATAS

20. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 20 Dynamic dosage of inoculant Predict % Nodularity Predict % Pearlite, BHN and Tensile Data for SPC systems Educational tool - “Live” learning Research & Development Specific Applications for ATAS

21. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 21 ATAS - the complete system for Metallurgical Process Control

22. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 22 Adapting ATAS - Phase 1 Taking ATAS into operation starts with about 20 trials to update the alloy database.

23. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 23 ATAS, Ready to Run! - Phase 2 ATAS can be used in production once the alloy database is customized

24. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 24 Accumulate Knowledge - Phase 3 When in production, data are analysed, the alloy database refined and new cases are entered. Knowledge about the process is accumulated and the prediction accuracy increases.

25. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 25 Economical Consequences Assume: Yearly production of 10.000 tons Scrap reduction: $ 10 to 20 / percent / tonnage Reduction, 1%, saving :$ 150.000 Yield improvement: $ 2-4 / percent / tonnage Improving, 65% to 67%, saving: $ 60.000 Reduced consumption of inoculant and Mg-alloy 5% reduction, saving of at least: $ 50.000 Total net savings approx: $ 25 per ton. Plus reduced cost for sampling, plus higher customer satisfaction etc Yearly savings: $ 250.000 $

26. - provides know-how and technology to winners in the foundry industry © NovaCast AB 26 T ATAS makes you The Scientific Foundryman! NovaCast AB, Soft Center, S-37225 Ronneby, Sweden Your partner in Methoding & Process Control Phone: (46) 45738 63 00 Fax: (46) 457 15622 E-Mail: info@novacast.se Web site:http://www.novacast.se