Vacuum furnace equipment for quantitative determination of trapped gases in castings

Parts manufactured with casting processes may trap substantial quantities of gas, which could harm the mechanical properties of the manufactured parts. In this work, a vacuum melting device manufactured to measure trapped gas in castings is described. Adjustment correlations, which accurately calculate trapped gas quantity as a function of the pressure increments measured by the vacuum equipment, are obtained. Finally, as an application of the equipment, we present the results obtained for several parts manufactured using a pressure die casting machine. It is expected that the vacuum melting device will be useful to optimize the operating conditions which reduce the trapped gas in casting processes. (Author) 25 refs