How molten metals flow and solidify inside a mold has long been a black box.
ADSTEFAN is a support tool that enables you to reduce defects, reduce costs, and reduce the number of prototypes by visualizing the casting process on your computer through simulations.
In developing the system, our policy has been to create a product that does not just serve analysis specialists, but rather can be easily used by everyone involved with casting technology.
It is a policy that will never change as we continue our development of ADSTEFAN.
Our mission will continue to evolve without change
System Overview
ADSTEFAN consists of pre-processor, solver, post processor and utility.
Mesh creation – Condition setting – Analysis execution – Result operation can be operated smoothly, and many customers have patronized us.
In addition, it can be used for various casting processes (die casting (squeeze, semi-solidification), gravity casting (sand mold / mold), low pressure casting, inclined casting,centrifugal casting, precision casting, lost wax casting, electro slag remelting (ESR)) It corresponds.
PRE-PROCESSOR
Creates analytical models by generating computational mesh and configuring analysis conditions and result output.
Automatically corrects for surface omissions, overlaps, inversions and other such errors in STL data.
Automatically configures physical property condition needed in the analysis by simply selecting the means of casting and mold materials from the included database.
Automatically verifies configuration settings (e.g.physical property limitations) to avoid work that must be redone due to input errors.
SOLVER / FLUID FLOW ANALYSIS
Analyzes how molten metals flow into and fill the mold. Its filling status, pressure, temperature changes, and other parameters can be simulated, enabling optimal plans to be designed.
The accuracy of the flow of the curved surface which is considered to be weak by the direct difference method is also subjected to unique difference correction processing, and improvement of straightness and accuracy is aimed at.
Moreover, various options such as gas-liquid two-phase flow consideration, molten metal behavior in sleeve, consideration of inclination, centrifugation consideration are carried.
SOLVER / SOLIDIFICATION ANALYSIS
Analyzes how molten metals solidify in the mold. By visualizing the progression process of solidification, we support wall thickness design and riser design.
By accounting for changes in the volume of molten metal during solidification, macro-shrinkage cavities occurring during solidification, as well as cavity shapes and sizes, can be predicted.
Moreover analysis for cast iron that local pressure and considers super-cooling can also be performed.
UTILITY
Various utilities are installed so that ADSTEFAN can be used more meaningfully, such as processing analysis results and cooperation tools with external analysis systems.
By using the property value matching tool and the overlay display function with X-ray imaging data, it is possible to accurately evaluate the deviation between the actual data and the analysis result.
POST PROCESSOR
Combines CAD data and volume rendering methods to provide high-speed, high-precision display of visual data necessary to evaluate results.
Scaling function, measurement function, result synchronization function, animation output function, report output function etc. are carried.
By using cross section display, semitransparent display, etc., we visualize the part to be evaluated in an easy-to-understand manner.
High-Speed Analysis
Casting simulations are tools for computer-based trial-and-error experimentation to discover which casting methods and conditions will be the most rational and result in minimal defects when casting.
Doing so requires multiple analysis, and it is hard to measure the actual impact of time spent on analysis in any given case. Its reputation as a leading tool for high-speed analysis is long-standing, but with its newly added parallel computing and large-scale analytical technology, ADSTEFAN substantially reduces analysis time even further.
Easy Operation
ADSTEFAN’s unified GUI provides access to a full range of processes, from importing CAD data to generating meshes, configuring analytical conditions, and evaluating results.
Its ability to share data(CAD, mesh, material properties, analysis results, etc.)between individual tools makes it possible to simultaneously manage all processing flows related to an analysis.
The system’s unified operating environment makes it easy to perform comparisons between existing analyses and new ideas, and by enabling data to be shared with external analytical tools and allowing optimization engines to be incorporated into the design optimization system, it also makes possible the development of various casting design processes.
Solid Foundation
The know-how of experienced technicians from over 30 casting companies was gathered together in Tohoku University’s cooperative industry-academia project, the “Casting CAE Research Society (Stefan Group)”. After the passage of roughly 7 years, the fruits of the society’s research and development were made into a commercial product through Tohoku Techno Arch Co., Ltd., a Technology Licensing Organization (TLO), to become a highly-reliable casting simulation system.
With routine user support as well as user conferences and technical seminars where engineers using ADSTEFAN exchange information on the one hand, we have extended our industry-academia partnership to include users and fuse the latest user needs with the seeds of cutting-edge research in pursuit of new features and ever-greater ease of use.
Newly developed features are distributed to users in accordance with the ADSTEFAN Support Services Contract and user evaluations from feedback during follow-ups are reflected in new areas of ADSTEFAN development.
In recognition of this partnership, we were given the 8th Award for Persons of Merit Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration, awarded in 2010 by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(Japan).