Experimental Simulation of the Formation of Volumetric Compacts from Spherical Waxy Elements

The increase in metal consumption of industrial production and in the volume of consumption of finished metal products determines the relevance of the development and research of energy-efficient technological processes aimed at reducing costs by reducing the number of operations while maintaining the performance characteristics of the product. In mechanical engineering, the problems of producing blanks with increased dimensional and geometric accuracy and complex configuration are solved by using the widespread method of investment casting. In mechanical engineering, the increase in the use of such a technological approach to producing blanks is hindered by a number of physical phenomena associated with the thermal expansion of investment and ceramic materials, which leads to an increase in the final cost of the product. A significant number of defect-forming factors can be eliminated by applying an innovative solution, which consists in the formation of porous removable patterns by compact compositions based on waxy materials. This method solves the problem of material shrinkage and increases the crack resistance of ceramic molds, which can significantly reduce the share of machining of blanks in the total number of technological operations. Technical tests of the new method made it possible to determine the reason why at present it is not possible to completely get rid of machining of castings. The problem is mainly in the elastic response of the compacted material of the investment composition, which in some cases affects the increase in the size of compacts. This article examines the effect of the initial packing of spherical-shaped elements simulating one- and two-component investment compositions on the stress-strain state of a powder body subjected to unilateral compaction in a rigid cylindrical matrix to technologically reasonable density values. The results of the experiment are presented in the form of stress-strain relations. Preferred conditions for the formation of compacts with minimum values of the elastic response of the compacted material are considered.