An a Priori Discussion of the Fill Front Stability in Semisolid Casting

Metal casting is an industrially important manufacturing process offering a superior combination of design flexibility, productivity and cost-effectiveness, but has limitations due to filling related defects. Several semisolid casting processes are available capable of casting at a range of solid fractions to overcome this. The current communication aims to review the filling front behaviour and give a new perspective to the gate design in semisolid processing compared to conventional high-pressure die-casting. It is shown that solid fraction and gate widths are critical to avoid instability and spraying.