TESTING THE QUALITY OF PISTON CASTINGS ON THE MACHINING LINE

The quality control of most castings concerns finished products and is carried out at special stands after the end of the production process. However, more and more foundries decide to use the so-called inter-operational quality control, the advantage of which is the earlier detection of defective products, which allows, among others to reduce production costs. This applies in particular to the automotive sector, whose products and services require special verification in terms of quality and functionality. The article presents a method of quality control of piston castings for combustion engines with the use of the US2D ultrasound scanner. It is a nondestructive testing (NDT) device that controls 100 % of all products on a given manufacturing line. This allows the detection of many imperfections in the casting, e.g. porosity, cracks, location of the cooling channel in relation to the piston crown. Thanks to this, it is possible to quickly adjust the parameters of the casting process and prevent defective products from being shipped to the customer.