Düsseldorf, 20-05-08 

Bionically Designed Castings with a Great Lightweight and Strength Potential

Bionics analyses nature's successful problem-solving strategies for use in technical applications. Nature's own designs evolve according to rules that ensure a maximum of stability combined with a minimum of material use. In the course of evolution, nature has produced a variety of heavy-duty 'high-end' products whose complex structures only rarely recall geometrically orderly engineering designs.  

Nevertheless, bionic designs have found a foothold in many realms of engineering. Today, modern software permits computing such structures and integrating them in the design of any component to be manufactured. Because of their low internal stress, these bionically adapted designs will bear greater loads, thus meeting in an ideal way the requirements of ergonomics and lightweight construction.  

This opens up interesting applications for components made by casting, a production process which, because of the great freedom of design it offers, permits manufacturing such complex and apparently irregular structures at economical machining and tooling costs. This is why topologically optimised components that were 'grown' on a computer in a quasi-bionic process are now to be found in modern casting production.

You will find detailed information on 'Bionically designed castings with a great lightweight and strength potential' in a reprint that is obtainable free of charge from ZGV – Zentrale für Gussverwendung, Sohnstraße 70, D-40237 Düsseldorf. (zgv@bdguss.de).

 

The subjects dealt with in previous ZGV information brochures include

• Precision Casting – an Economical Solution for Complex Components  
• Austenitic Cast Iron Features Properties for Extreme Applications
• Welding of Castings – an Overview
• High-tech Castings Mirror the Dynamic Development of Wind Power Generation
• Cast Iron with Lamellar Graphite – still the most Frequently Used Cast Iron Material
• Cast Cylinder Heads and Crankcases Offer Versatile Solutions for the Cars of Today and Tomorrow
• High-alloy Casting Materials for Special Applications in the Pump Industry World
• Steel Castings for Buildings all over the World
• What to know about Cast iron with spheroidal graphite
• Versatile Non-destructive Tests for Castings
• Black Malleable Cast Iron – Strong and Tough
• Visual Determination of the Surface Quality of Castings by Reference Samples Graphite