Development and Evaluation of Mild Steel Permanent Mould for Al-Alloys Pulley Production

The development and evaluation of a mild steel permanent mould were conducted with considerations based on materials availability, cost efficiency, and national economic development. The design, material selection, and fabrication strategy were all carefully chosen to meet these objectives. Geometric modelling of the mould design was carried out using Pro/Engineer® software, generating various views and parameters of the mould with and without components. Mild steel was chosen for mould production due to its strength, rigidity, availability, high melting temperature, surface finish, and machinability. Fabrication of the mould utilized basic machine tools such as a lathe machine and drilling machine. To evaluate the performance of the developed mould, an aluminium alloy pulley was produced using the mould and aluminium scraps. Microstructural analysis and hardness tests were performed on mould samples before and after casting. The results indicate that the heated mould sample, after casting, exhibits a fine-induced dendritic structure comprised of smaller grains, whereas the microstructure of the unheated mould displayed larger grain sizes. The maximum hardness number recorded was 204 HV for the mould sample after casting, indicating the ability of the mould material to withstand fatigue stresses and wear generated during casting.