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Study of Aluminum Alloy 7075: Sand Casting and

Lost Foam Casting Methods
Kandasamy Thiyagarajan
Department of Mechanical Engineering
CSI Polytechnic College
Salem, Tamilnadu, India
salemthiyagarajan17@[Link], salemthiyagarajan1701@[Link]

Murugesan Jayaraman
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Velalar College of Engineering and Technology
Erode, Tamilnadu, India
thiyagubalaji21@[Link]

Abstract— Sand casting is a metal casting process which use sand as the mould material. In the lost foam casting process a polystyrene
pattern is replaced by the molten metal and copies the entire features from the pattern. In the present work the performance of aluminum alloy
7075 (AA-7075) are studied. The core testing materials are prepared in the foundry by lost foam casting and sand casting methods. The testing
specimens are prepared from the core testing materials according to the ASTM machines standards. The experiments are carried out in the
AA-7075 material prepared by sand casting and lost foam casting methods. And also the SEM and cluster analysis are carried out. The results
show that the surface roughness and impact strength values are low in the sand casting method compared with lost foam casting. The Hardness
value is high in the sand casting compared with lost foam casting. It is observed that the properties of the materials are varying according to the
method of casting.

Keywords— Aluminium alloy, lost foam casting, surface roughness, impact strength,Hardness, SEM test and cluster analysis.

I. INTRODUCTION
Sand casting is the common and economical casting process for manufacturing the parts in small numbers in large and small
sizes. The various parts such as shafts, engine blocks, gear automotive, etc [1]. Magnesium and aluminium alloy are the light
metals and are used in the vehicle structure for the purpose of improving energy efficiency which decreases the emission of
greenhouse gases [2]. Lost foam casting (LFC) is a one of the production process and it is used for more than 50 years. In this
process the molten metal decomposed the entrenched polystyrene pattern in the sand mould. Therefore, the various features in the
pattern are occupied by the molten metal [3]. Studied the altered mechanical properties and it is achieved in aluminium alloy by
using different strengthening techniques such as age hardening etc. The favourable mechanical properties are explained by
revealing the microstructure of aluminium alloy and intermediate phase compounds during formation of aluminium alloy [4]. The
discrete element model has been studied for the lost foam casting process. It gives the information about defects due to the
insufficient sand compaction around the pattern. Numerical simulation was carried out to identify the defects due to the
insufficient sand compaction around the pattern [5]. During pouring of mould in to the foam a polymer vapour bubbling through
the liquid metal accumulates along an upward facial flow front until it opens a finite gap between the foam and the liquid metal. It
provides information about the part thickness, metal temperature, pressure effect filling speed in bottom fill situation and also
compares it with the experimental data [6]. An innovation manufacturing to cast the metal matrix composite is proposed and the
aluminium matrix composite by the lost foam casting has been investigated. The effect of the matrix metal on the mechanical
properties of the composite specimen is investigated and the fabricated specimens were characterized using the image analysis
hardness test, scanning electron microscope and the X-ray diffraction analysis [7]. This paper deals with mold filling of
aluminium A356 and what parameters will affect the mold filling. The mold filling sequence can be investigated with the aid of
direct (photography) observation method [8]. The influences of refractory summative contents on viscosity, strength and other
performances and also developed a coating with high performance which can meet the requirement of LFC for steel casting. The
results shown that the increased of high bauxite content the zircon powder content has been decreased the permeability, strength
and attached quantity of the coating increased [9]. The dependence of the fluidity of the silumin on the polystyrene’s
characteristics, casting temperature and the pattern’s parameters is revealed. Recommendations regarding the application of
various polystyrene types for artistic casting are provided [10]. The characteristic of Lost Foam Casting (LFC) processes and
considered the metal flow pattern decomposition gas pressure impediment, interface elapse model is established base on gap
pressure as boundary of front of melt flow is studied. Corresponding numerical solution method is applied to simulate filling and

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solidification process of LFC [11]. The universal background of steel cast by means of LFC and some of the current applications
are discussed. The discussion of the casting of 1060 plain carbon steel gears and ASTM A743 grade CF8M and ASTM A743
grade CF8 stainless steel components, microstructure and surface appearance are in detail. And also the data related to the
minimum amount of carbon achieved and final carbon content in the castings is presented [12]. The development of LFC process
of magnesium alloys are used to for power-train applications, produce engine blocks and heads for can direct to significant weight
reduction is analyzed. The LFC techniques are at present used for aluminium alloys has been establish an inadequate due to its
high reactivity and low heat content compared to aluminium alloys [13]. Moftah et al presented that the mage segmentation is the
method in which an image is partitioned into many parts, such that an image is depicted into something that is easy to express and
easy to study [14]. Gulhane et al discussed that the number of partitions is basically predefined in the K-mean algorithm. The
cluster centers are arbitrarily initialized for already defined clusters. Each data point is then allocated to one of the nearest cluster
[15]. From the literature it is identified that the comparison of aluminium alloy AA-7075 between the conventional and lost foam
casting methods has not been reported. The present work provides the platform for the researcher to identify that how the
parameters like hardness, impact strength and surface roughness are vary depending on manufacturing methods.

II. MATERIAL AND METHODS

The aluminum alloy 7075 specimens have been prepared in the conventional casting (Sand) and lost foam casting methods.
For lost foam casting method the polystyrene foam of size 25 mm diameter and 120 mm long is chosen as shown in Figure - 1.

Figure - 1 Polystyrene foam

The core testing materials are prepared in the foundry at Meenakshi Foundry, Madurai, Tamilnadu, South India. The testing
specimens are prepared from the core testing materials according to the ASTM standards. The various parameters such as
hardness, impact strength and surface roughness are considered for this study. The core materials are prepared in the sand casting
method and foam casting methods are shown in the Figure - 2 and 3.

Figure - 2 Core material AA-7075 (Conventional method)

Figure - 3 Core material AA-7075 (Foam casting method)

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2.1 Experimental part:

The experimental work has been carried out for different parameters like hardness, surface roughness and impact
strength of AA-7075 specimen. Hardness, surface roughness and impact strength are the important properties of the material in
the application aspects.
2.1.1. Surface roughness
Surface roughness often shortened to roughness, is a component of surface texture. It is quantified by the deviations in
the direction of the normal vector of a real surface from its ideal form. If these deviations are large, the surface is rough; if they
are small, the surface is smooth. Figure - 4 shows the surface roughness measuring device. The surface roughness is measured in
the testing specimen before machining. The surface roughness of the testing specimens are tabulated and shown in the table - 1.

Figure - 4 Surface roughness measuring device

Surface Roughness value (Ra) µm

Specimen Sand casting
Foam casting
(Conventional)
0.38 3.19

Aluminium alloy 0.63 7.80

(AA-7075) 0.80 3.91

0.82 3.78

Table - 1 Surface roughness

2.1.2. Hardness
Hardness is the property of a material that enables it to resist plastic deformation, usually by penetration. However,
the term hardness may also refer to resistance to bending, scratching, abrasion or cutting. Figure - 5 shows the Rockwell hardness
testing machine. The hardness values are measured in the B- scale. The indenter ball diameter is 1.58 mm and the major load
applied is 100kg. Table - 2 shows the hardness values of the testing specimens.

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Figure - 5 Hardness testing machine

Hardness value - HRB

Specimen Sand casting Foam
(Conventional) casting

58 48
Aluminium alloy
61 46
(AA-7075)
66 46

Table - 2 Hardness value of the material

2.1.3. Impact strength

The impact strength is the ability of a material to absorb shock and impact energy without breaking. The impact
strength is calculated as the ratio of impact absorption to test specimen cross-section. Impact strength is the resistance of a
material to fracture under dynamic load. The Charpy impact test, also known as the Charpy V-notch test, is a standardized high
strain-rate test which determines the amount of energy absorbed by a material during fracture. Figure - 6 shows the impact testing
machine. Figure - 7 shows the Charpy V- notch test specimen. The specification of the specimen is 55 x 10 x 10 mm, position of
the groove from one end is 27.5 mm, depth of the groove is 2 mm and width of the groove is 4 mm. Figure - 8 shows the V- notch
specimen after fractured.

Figure - 6 Impact testing machine

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Figure - 7 V- notch test specimen

Figure - 8 V- notch specimen after fractured

In the present work the impact strength is estimated for the selected aluminum alloy AA- 7075. The test is performed in
the impact tensile testing machine as shown in figure - 6. Figure - 8 shows the tested specimens of AA-7075 in the impact testing
machine. Table - 3 shows the impact strength of the AA-7075 material prepared from sand casting and foam lost casting
methods.

Sand casting
Description Foam casting
(Conventional)
Initial Charpy scale
1.9620 1.9620
reading (Nm)
Final Charpy scale
21.5963 39.266
reading (Nm)
Impact strength (Nm) 19.633 37.27
Table - 3 Impact strength of material AA-7075

2.1.4 SEM Analysis and Cluster Analysis

The Scanning Electronic Microscopic (SEM) analysis is carried out in the AA-7075 manufactured by conventional and
lost foam casting methods. Figure - 9 shows the SEM image of conventional manufactured material. Figure - 10 shows the SEM
image of lost foam casting manufactured material. From the SEM test image the cluster analysis is carried out. The area of SEM
image segmentation is done by using clustering. There are different methods and one of the most popular methods is k-means
clustering algorithm. K -means clustering algorithm is an unsupervised algorithm and it is used to segment the interest area from
the background.

Figure 9 Aluminium Alloy 7075 (Conventional casting)

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Figure 10 Aluminium Alloy 7075 (Lost foam casting)

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The various parameters such as surface roughness, hardness and impact strength are considered for the present study and
the results are obtained from the experiments conducted in the material AA-7075 are discussed bellow.

3.1.1. Surface roughness of the material

The surface roughness test was carried out on aluminium alloy made by lost foam casting and conventional (sand
casting) methods before machining. The test was conducted to determine the surface roughness of the aluminium alloy. The two
samples are chosen for performing the test.

5.0

4.5
Average Surface Roughness (Ra)

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
AA-7075 (Conventional) AA-7075 (Lost Foam)
Casting Method

Figure - 11 Surface roughness of the material (Before machining)

Figure - 11 shows the averages surface roughness for the two samples made by conventional and lost foam casting
methods. It is found that the surface roughness of aluminium alloy made by conventional casting is lower than the aluminium
alloy by lost foam casting. Due to the presents of foam the surface roughness is high in the lost foam casting.
3.1.2. Hardness of the material
The hardness of the selected Aluminium alloy made by conventional sand casting ad lost foam casting methods are
carried out in the hardness testing machine with steel ball indenter. For each material, three readings are taken and the average
hardness value is calculated for each material.

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Figure - 12 shows the average hardness values for aluminium alloy made by conventional sand casting and lost foam
casting method. It is found that the average hardness value of aluminium alloy by lost foam casting is lower than the aluminium
alloy made by conventional casting method. So that aluminium alloy made by conventional casting method is the harder material.

65
60
55

Average Hardness Value (RHB)

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
AA-7075 (Conventional) AA-7075 (Lost Foam)
Casting Method

Figure - 12 Hardness values of the material

3.1.3. Impact strength of the material

The Charpy impact test was conducted for V notch specimen of aluminium alloy made by sand casting and lost foam casting
methods. The test was conducted to determine the impact strength i.e. the amount of energy absorbed by a material during
fracture. The two samples are chosen for performing the test.

40

35

30
Impact Strength (Nm)

25

20

15

10

0
AA-7075 (Conventional) AA-7075 (Lost Foam)
Casting Method

Figure - 13 Impact strength of the material

Figure - 13 shows the impact strength for the two samples. It is found that the impact strength for aluminum alloy made
by lost foam casting method is higher than the aluminum alloy made by conventional casting.
3.1.4 Cluster analysis
The K-mean algorithm is used to segment the interest area from the background in the image of SEM test. In the k-mean
algorithm the k-mean value is taken as one.

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Figure 14 Cluster image - Aluminium Alloy 7075 (Conventional casting)

Figure 15 Cluster image - Aluminium Alloy 7075 (Lost foam casting)

Figure 14 shows the cluster image of aluminum alloys 7075 manufactured in the conventional casting. Figure 15 shows
the cluster image of AA 7075 manufactured in the foam lost casting process. It is observed that the material having continuous
cutting edges in the lost foam casting manufactured AA7075. So that the impact strength is high due to the bonding of the
material in this manufacturing method is high compared with conventional method.

IV. CONCLUSION
The performance of aluminium alloy AA-7075 made by conventional casting and lost foam casting methods is studied in
this work. The various tests like Charpy impact test, hardness test, surface roughness and SEM test are conducted. The impact
strength of aluminium alloy made by lost foam casting is higher than the aluminium alloy made by conventional casting method.
This is due to the high bonding between the materials in the manufacturing process. The other two test results such as hardness
value and surface roughness value are higher for the aluminium alloy made by the conventional casting than the aluminium alloy
made by lost foam casting. It is concluded that the aluminium alloy made by conventional casting have better hardness and
surface roughness than the aluminium alloy by lost foam casting while the impact strength of aluminium alloy by lost foam
casting is higher than the alloy made by conventional casting. The performance of material based on the properties is depends on
the method of manufacturing selected to make the component.

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