Methods for forming a unitized crucible assembly for holding a melt of silicon for forming a silicon ingot are disclosed. In some embodiments, the methods involve a porous crucible mold having a channel network with a bottom channel, an outer sidewall channel that extends from the bottom channel, and a central weir channel that extends from the bottom channel. A slip slurry may be added to the channel network and the liquid carrier of the slip slurry may be drawn into the mold. The resulting green body may be sintered to form the crucible assembly.

Methods for forming a unitized crucible assembly for holding a melt of silicon for forming a silicon ingot are disclosed. In some embodiments, the methods involve a porous crucible mold having a channel network with a bottom channel, an outer sidewall channel that extends from the bottom channel, and a central weir channel that extends from the bottom channel. A slip slurry may be added to the channel network and the liquid carrier of the slip slurry may be drawn into the mold. The resulting green body may be sintered to form the crucible assembly.

A method of bonding a mini-core to a surface of a core is provided. The method includes providing the mini-core with an attachment device that includes a protrusion of a surface of the mini-core, dipping the protrusion into a supply of paste to transfer a fixed quantity of paste to the protrusion and affixing the protrusion to the surface of the core with the fixed amount of paste interposed between the surface and the protrusion.

A process for producing a metal alloy balance wheel by molding includes a) making a mold in the negative shape of the balance wheel; b) obtaining a metal alloy that has a thermal expansion coefficient of less than 25 ppm/° C. and is able to be in an at least partly amorphous state when it is heated to a temperature between its glass transition temperature and its crystallization temperature; c) putting the metal alloy into the mold, the metal alloy being heated to a temperature between its glass transition temperature and its crystallization temperature so as to be hot-molded and to form a balance wheel; d) cooling the metal alloy to obtain a balance wheel made of the metal alloy; and e) releasing the balance wheel obtained in step d) from its mold. The process also includes a step for over-molding flexible centering components in the hub.

A method of manufacturing a mold by a machine tool, the method including predicting a thermal fatigue life of a mold which is made of a mold material having a hardness H and on which heating during contact with a workpiece and cooling after contact with a workpiece are repeated, the method including a step for obtaining a thermal stress maximum value σ.sub.h_MAX among a plurality of thermal stress values at a position x on the mold and a temperature T.sub.h at the thermal stress maximum value, wherein the temperature at the thermal stress maximum value σ.sub.h_MAX is a temperature lower than a maximum temperature among the plurality of temperatures, the machine tool manufactures the predetermined mold shape from a mold material having one of the plurality of hardnesses in which the thermal fatigue life was obtained based on the thermal stress maximum value, the yield strength, and the contraction.

A method of manufacturing a mold by a machine tool, the method including predicting a thermal fatigue life of a mold which is made of a mold material having a hardness H and on which heating during contact with a workpiece and cooling after contact with a workpiece are repeated, the method including a step for obtaining a thermal stress maximum value σ.sub.h_MAX among a plurality of thermal stress values at a position x on the mold and a temperature T.sub.h at the thermal stress maximum value, wherein the temperature at the thermal stress maximum value σ.sub.h_MAX is a temperature lower than a maximum temperature among the plurality of temperatures, the machine tool manufactures the predetermined mold shape from a mold material having one of the plurality of hardnesses in which the thermal fatigue life was obtained based on the thermal stress maximum value, the yield strength, and the contraction.

An inspection device is a device that inspects the appearance of a target, including: an imaging device configured to image the target from a first direction; an illuminating unit configured to apply light to the target; and a controller configured to acquire a first inspection image by causing the imaging device to image the target to which light is applied from a first position, to acquire a second inspection image by causing the imaging device to image the target to which light is applied from a second position, and to inspect an appearance of the target based on the first inspection image, the second inspection image, and a reference image. The first position and the second position overlap each other when viewed from the first direction.

A method and a fugitive mold for producing a cast-metal part are provided. In some embodiments, the fugitive mold may be formed by three-dimensionally (3D) printing a preceramic resin in the shape of a fugitive mold; curing the preceramic resin to form a preceramic polymer, and pyrolyzing the fugitive mold to convert the preceramic polymer to a metastable ceramic material. The metastable ceramic material may include an amorphous silicon oxycarbide ceramic. A cast-metal part may be formed by filling the fugitive mold with a liquid metal or alloy, and allowing the liquid metal or alloy to solidify over a first length of time. The cast-metal part may then be retrieved by heating the fugitive mold at a temperature lower than the melting point of the cast-metal part for a second length of time longer than the first length of time to disintegrate the metastable ceramic material.

A void former is arranged in a mold (30). The void former includes an insert (1) made of flexible material that forms a loop around a core region (15) within the mold. Casting material is added in a fluid state into the mold so as to fill a predefined volume for the facing element, including the core region. After hardening of the casting material, the facing element (10) is removed from the mold, and the void former is removed from the facing element. The facing element comprises an anchoring core formed by the hardened casting material in the core region (15). Removing the void former comprises pulling the insert (1) away from a rear surface of the facing element (10). The flexible material of the at least one insert is deformed around the anchoring core (15) while it is pulled.

A copper-nickel-tin alloy with excellent castability, hot and cold workability, high resistance to abrasive wear, adhesive wear and fretting wear and improved resistance to corrosion and stress relaxation stability, consisting of (in weight %): 2.0-10.0% Ni, 2.0-10.0% Sn, 0.01-1.5% Si, 0.01-1.0% Fe, 0.002-0.45% B, 0.001-0.15% P, selectively up to a maximum of 2.0% Co, optionally also up to a maximum 2.0% Zn, selectively up to a maximum of 0.25% Pb, the residue being copper and unavoidable impurities. The ratio Si/B of the element contents in wt. % of the elements silicon and boron is a minimum 0.4 and a maximum 8 such that the copper-nickel-tin alloy has Si-containing and B-containing phases, phases of the systems Ni—Si—B, Ni—B, Fe—B, Ni—P, Fe—P, Ni—Si, and other Fe-containing phases, which improve the processing and use properties of the alloy.