Cast parts for the automotive and aerospace industries today have increasingly complex geometries and thinner walls. Both trends are intensifying with the development of electromobility, where the weight of the components is crucial.

Industrially, these components are produced using sand cores to model the inner contour. Sand cores are produced by injecting a sand mixture with a binding agent and then passing a catalyst gas through a core box. This process cannot yet be adequately monitored using measurement technology and therefore cannot be controlled and optimised. However, the quality of the sand core is crucial for the quality of the cast part!

An interdisciplinary team from the fields of foundry technology and metrology/sensor technology at TU Bergakademie Freiberg is currently developing a process that can be used to record and model the core shooting and, in particular, the gassing process using specially developed ultrasonic sensors. In combination with numerical simulations, the team can optimise the parameters for core shooting and the distribution of the catalyst gas. A prototype of this ultrasound-based sensor system is to be developed by 2026 and trialled in collaboration with industrial partners.