Ashland Casting Solutions, a business group of Ashland Specialty Chemical, has introduced a series of updates with the release of Arena-flow version 5.5 -- the computer-aided engineering software it supplies for metalcasting processes.

Arena-flow was developed by Arena LLC together with General Motors, NASA, the U.S. Dept. of Energy and Ashland Casting Solutions. It is made available by license from Ashland, or by contract engineering projects conducted by Ashland at its Design Services Center.

The new developments include a proprietary transient-curing model that simulates the progression of the catalyst curing front as it passes through a cold-box sand core. Users specify various process conditions, such as amount of catalyst, gassing pressures, gassing times, and others, to optimize tooling designs. Core-making cycle times can be minimized in a virtual environment before cold-box tooling is produced, to reduce costs and start-up times significantly.

Other improvements involve several core-blowing models. More advanced grid generator options have been added since this function was introduced with Arena-Flow v. 5.0, to give users greater functional control. Also, new logic upgrades have been added to check for allowable settings in order to maintain high accuracy and minimal mesh sensitivity.

Ashland Casting Solutions project engineer Nigel Yeomans states: “Each of these enhancements has resulted in reductions in set-up and processing times while improving simulation accuracy.”

Arena-flow v. 5.5 is called “more user friendly” thanks to a new smart interface with an enhanced error-checking algorithm that allows the program to detect and correct user input errors. Learn more about

Arena-flow by contacting Ashland Casting Solutions Design Center Manager Trever Skilnick, Tel. 614-790-6532.