A nickel base casting alloy includes a composition, by weight percent: 19.0-22.5 chromium, 7.0-9.5 molybdenum, 2.75-4.0 niobium, 1.0-1.7 titanium, 0.35-1.0 manganese, 0.2-1.0 silicon, 0-0.03 carbon, 0-0.015 phosphorus, 0-0.01 sulfur, 0-0.35 aluminum, 0-13.25 iron, the balance being nickel and incidental impurities.

A nickel base casting alloy includes a composition, by weight percent: 19.0-22.5 chromium, 7.0-9.5 molybdenum, 2.75-4.0 niobium, 1.0-1.7 titanium, 0.35-1.0 manganese, 0.2-1.0 silicon, 0-0.03 carbon, 0-0.015 phosphorus, 0-0.01 sulfur, 0-0.35 aluminum, 0-13.25 iron, the balance being nickel and incidental impurities.

A process for preparing molten metals for casting at a low to zero superheat temperature involves the steps of placing a heat extracting probe into the melt and at the same time vigorous convection is applied to assure nearly uniform cooling of the melt. Then, the heat extraction probe is rapidly removed when a low or zero superheat temperature is reached. Finally, the rapidly cooled melt is quickly transferred to a mold for casting into parts or a shot sleeve for injection into a die cavity. The process may be carried out so as that small amounts of solid form in part of the melt. In this case, a key aspect of the invention is to carry out the process rapidly in order to maintain the particles in a fine, dispersed state that will not impede flow and will improve the quality of the metal parts produced. Cost of the metal parts produced is lowered due to longer die life and shorter cycle time.

A process for preparing molten metals for casting at a low to zero superheat temperature involves the steps of placing a heat extracting probe into the melt and at the same time vigorous convection is applied to assure nearly uniform cooling of the melt. Then, the heat extraction probe is rapidly removed when a low or zero superheat temperature is reached. Finally, the rapidly cooled melt is quickly transferred to a mold for casting into parts or a shot sleeve for injection into a die cavity. The process may be carried out so as that small amounts of solid form in part of the melt. In this case, a key aspect of the invention is to carry out the process rapidly in order to maintain the particles in a fine, dispersed state that will not impede flow and will improve the quality of the metal parts produced. Cost of the metal parts produced is lowered due to longer die life and shorter cycle time.

A cast component, in particular for a vehicle, has a surface structuring arranged on at least one wall portion of the cast component. The surface structuring forms a surface of the wall portion, and stiffens the wall portion. The surface structuring is formed by a plurality of evenly shaped depressions in the surface of the wall portion, which depressions are mutually spaced apart, leaving interconnected webs, and produce tapered sections on the wall portion.

A cast component, in particular for a vehicle, has a surface structuring arranged on at least one wall portion of the cast component. The surface structuring forms a surface of the wall portion, and stiffens the wall portion. The surface structuring is formed by a plurality of evenly shaped depressions in the surface of the wall portion, which depressions are mutually spaced apart, leaving interconnected webs, and produce tapered sections on the wall portion.

A method for quickly finding robust operating points of a casting process is disclosed. Metamodels and extrapolatable models contribute to reducing the experimental effort both in simulation and for practical experiments, and these models are subsequently used for autonomous control of the casting process.

The method comprises at least the following steps: exposing a substrate to focused laser irradiation at a preselected series of locations that trace a subset of the substrate volume that is connected to the surface of the substrate; some subsets of substrate volume not connected to the surface of the substrate may also be exposed at the same time for other purposes, for instance, so that they can be used as waveguides or other optical elements or for another subsequent etching step; removing the substrate material from the exposed preselected series of locations to create within the substrate at least one cavity that is connected to the surface of the substrate; immersing the cavity-containing substrate in an appropriate atmosphere such as a selected gas or vacuum and, within this atmosphere, contacting the substrate surface with the molten castable material surface at locations where the cavity or cavities emerges from the substrate; applying pressure to the castable material to cause it to infiltrate the substrate cavities; and solidifying the castable material within the cavities.

The method comprises at least the following steps: exposing a substrate to focused laser irradiation at a preselected series of locations that trace a subset of the substrate volume that is connected to the surface of the substrate; some subsets of substrate volume not connected to the surface of the substrate may also be exposed at the same time for other purposes, for instance, so that they can be used as waveguides or other optical elements or for another subsequent etching step; removing the substrate material from the exposed preselected series of locations to create within the substrate at least one cavity that is connected to the surface of the substrate; immersing the cavity-containing substrate in an appropriate atmosphere such as a selected gas or vacuum and, within this atmosphere, contacting the substrate surface with the molten castable material surface at locations where the cavity or cavities emerges from the substrate; applying pressure to the castable material to cause it to infiltrate the substrate cavities; and solidifying the castable material within the cavities.

A method for producing iron metal castings, wherein an expendable mold having a cavity for holding casting material is inserted into an opened multi-part permanent mold, the permanent mold is closed, the cavity is filled with casting material, wherein a supporting device partially protruding into the cavity is partially overcast, the expendable mold is cooled in the permanent mold after the filling, the permanent mold is opened during the cooling, after the liquidus temperature has been fallen below at the earliest, and the expendable mold is nondestructively removed from the permanent mold together with the casting, the expendable mold is further cooled together with the solidified casting while hanging on the supporting device, at least until the microstructure formation of the casting is concluded, the casting is demolded by removing the expendable mold.