Process Planning for Defect -Free Castings and Forgings Using Case Based Reasoning

As the market becomes more complex with innumerable parameters changing the complexion and making it dynamic, an absolute decision-making model turns out to be obsolete every time one seeks to get advice from it. To this effect, a dynamic decision-making model is the need of the hour which would consider every conceivable change resultant of every probable effect of any one of the known parameters. It is a general perception that remedial measures to large extent can be directly found from the decision analysis of the causes investigated. Instead of having an instant temporary remedial measure for defects, a concurrent engineering model is proposed and developed starting from defect interpretation where critical distinction of various NDT methods is made and a suitable NDT method is suggested to suit the requirement along with identifying the defect from the huge database in which types of defects and its characteristic appearances are stored. It indeed identifies the defect based iterative approach leading to systematic investigation into possible causes, there by setting up the base for remedial measures taking into consideration primarily from the material selection, processing and heat treatment thus suggesting optimum design of gating and risering, pattern in case of castings and forging dies, flash and gutter in case of forgings. Of all the processes heat treatment in general and, tempering, hardening in particular has been short listed for detailed investigation. These processes have been modeled mathematically for variations of various mechanical properties by the use of practical data. The results in the form of equations and graphs have been documented in the manuscript and were also incorporated in the automated format.