Services • Technology

World Leading Technology

An automotive OEM recently declared Sarginsons work on Digital Twin Simulations as 'the most significant advance in casting technology for over 30 years'. This epitomises Sarginsons strategy of being the global leader in casting technology. Technology that creates a real world advantage for customers and foundry alike. This means minimising mass, costs, development times and CO2 whilst maximising mechanical performance and decreasing the risks of doing so.

For Sarginsons, creating digital twin simulations, which predict TYE mechanical performance, fatigue and stress at any point of a casting, was the start of a whole range of new technologies. Everything from Topological Optimisation, Designed Deformation and Smart Cooling through to eAlloy development. But the real secret was making it all exploitable and readily available through making the data exportable to OEM's FEA meshes.

Exploit the infinite design potential of Liquid Metal.

Digital Twin Simulations

'The biggest breakthrough in casting for 30 years' describes the ability to predict TYE mechanical strength at any point on a component's form, and export that data directly to clients FEA meshes. No need to take the risk of using averaged, homogenised data cards. as is the current practice.

It cannot be overstated how Sarginsons ability to create accurate Digital Twin Simulations will change the diecasting world. For the first time, casting performance can be understood at the design phase which de-risks projects, informs lightweighting and compresses time to manufacture.

Every casting should run a Digital Twin Simulation. We're happy to oblige.

Topological Lightweighting

The science of lightweighting is topological optimisation; the mathematics of minimising mass for a given design space but, this is impractical without the ability to accurately simulate TYE mechanical characteristics. Digital simulations are the key to Sarginsons technology, but topology opens the door to a panorama of cost saving and mechanical opportunities.

Sarginsons have achieved a 30%+ weight reduction in all castings when applying topological optimisation to existing projects. And a recent £6m grant from Innovate, for PIVOT, will compound the efficacy of these simulations, by merging solidification, topological optimisation and digital simulations to produce one, optimised lightweighting software solution.

It cannot be overstated how fundamentally this will improve castings.

Augmented Solidification

Solidification simulation software is standard at most foundries, but few recognise the imperfections and nuances of the different types of these programmes; fewer still seek to use these variations to their own advantage.

Sarginsons combines three different solidification packages, each with their own particular strengths, with five years of datasets it has developed through testing and it's own simulations. The result is a multi-faceted solidification study, that provides an enhanced view of potential casting issues, to enable earlier problem resolution, better castings and lower costs.

The better the solidification study, the better the casting.

TYE Mapping

A key step with the simulation of the variable mechanical properties, inherent within automotive cast components, is being able to export this simulated data to FEA software for dynamic full vehicle crash and performance simulation.

Sarginsons have developed techniques to seamlessly map localised TYE data, as opposed to the homogenised data currently used, to customer FEA meshes to enable more realistic outputs – a global first. Sarginsons creates and supplies this data direct to clients for use to run more effective simulations.

Sarginsons is happy to provide this service independently of its foundry and casting process.

Accurate TYE maps improve every aspect of the casting process.

Intelligent Tooling

Another Sarginsons innovation, and the key to the Freeform Casting concept, is the use of specialist techniques, such as 3D printed cooling channels, to target areas of stress by refining grain structure without additives or increased mass.

Modern tooling technology can overcome design limitations, whilst improving mechanical strength, so avoiding any necessity of re-design and, sometimes, heat treatment. With intelligent tooling, almost any design becomes castable, which revolutionises component design and facilitates the merging of components into larger, more cost effective castings.

Intelligent Tooling solves problems and creates opportunities.

Designed Deformation

Sarginsons strives to avoid heat treatment and its distortion through intelligent tool design, alloy selection and targeted cooling. When unavoidable, Sarginsons can simulate the heat distortion and apply solutions such as temperature sequencing, component orientation, residual stress analysis and fixturing.

Sarginsons also exploits Designed Deformation, in which tools produce components in an exact negative of the predicted deformation, so they distort into the desired position. The ability to negate distortion is particularly important with larger castings.

Heat Treatment distortion is a problem and an opportunity.

Enhanced Secondary Alloys

Aluminium recycles easily but cannot totally replace new aluminium, because it's mechanical performance is impacted by oxide and iron contamination. Sarginsons has developed solutions to strengthen recycled alloys through grain refinement, additive purification, and processes that enhance nucleation and associated kinetics.

Successful trials are now being commercialised an extensive R&D program, which also seeks to create a supply chain of clean aluminium through QR coding and laser sorting. The end result is an ability to use secondary aluminium in all applications with carbon emissions reduced by 97.5%.

Recycled aluminium is better than primary aluminium.

Smart Cooling

Sand cast prototypes have always been used to prove automotive designs, but their use has been limited due to poorer mechanical properties caused by the retarded cooling of sand on aluminium grain structure.

Sarginsons have, through digital twin simulation and Smart Cooling, developed techniques that elevate the mechanical properties, particularly elongation and ductility, in the key stressed zones, to that of production parts; giving validity to the test phases whilst compressing development timescales. For the first time, prototypes sand castings truly replicate the mechanical performance of production parts.

Cast component performance is all about being cool.

Freeform Casting

Casting designs have conventionally been restricted by traditional CAD modelling driven by homogenised, fixed TYE in CAE simulations and the limits of production tooling. This typically results in designs that are overweight, cumbersome, and challenging to cast.

By adopting topology optimisation, enhanced casting solidification simulation, mapped performance predictions, and additive tooling techniques it is now possible to create castings that are organic in design, geometrically free, de-risked, and fully mass optimised. This is Sarginsons approach, this is the future.

Freeform Casting is a design revolution.