Athena gives an estimation of the main metallurgical properties of aluminium alloys, analyzing and saving in real time the cooling curves and offering to its users some powerful tools of analysis, at higher levels of competence.
Its main features are:
• Grain refining and modification analysis;
• Mapping for thermal treatment;
• Estimated pouring temperature;
• Measurement for the temperature of the melt;
• Estimation of the fluidity.
The software is user friendly, intuitive and easy to learn to use, and gives easily understood output to the operator. Athena can analyze the metal in the different phases of the process, with a high amount of independent channels, for complete monitoring of the melting furnaces and of the moulding lines. Athena adapts to the production of your foundry, with personalized analyses for different kinds of castings.
The immediate forecasting of the level of grain refining and modification (with reference to macrographs and micrographs) allows to appreciate the effect of these treatments, showing the differences of structure, in order to optimize the using of these consumables in the foundry.
The thermal parameters calculated by Athena can be used as input data to identify the best thermal treatment curve and to avoid the execution of treatments that could create some problems into the casting.
Even for this reason, Athena suggests the optimal pouring temperature for different alloys, in function of their main physical characteristics and to obtain the maximum in terms of fluidity without excessive waste.
The temperature of the melt is detected and integrated with the data of the standard thermal analysis, in order to have a complete monitoring of melting process, in all its phases. The estimation of the fluidity helps the foundry man to avoid the presence of defects in the casting, as cold joints.
The different indicators can be calibrated to suit your production, in order to have an estimation of grain refining and modification not only referred to the “alloy AlSi7”, but rather it will concern the “alloy AlSi7” produced in the foundry “XYZ”, used to pour the casting “abc”. This is possible thanks to a specific module that will calibrate your Athena easily, automatically and intuitively.
Athena can be adapted to the production context of the foundry, up to multi-channel plants that control melting furnaces, pouring furnaces and treatment stations.
The software can interact with all the other tools/databases in the foundry, becoming the main “active” data recipient. In fact, the Athena Sql Server database will not be a simple backup copy of the process data, but it will reuse them to execute new calculations and to prepare sophisticated reports and medium-long term analyses.
Pictures: Acquisition Interface, Casting customization, Data Analysis Module, Example of thermal analysis plant.
Download: Athena brochure.