Optimization of investment casting parameters for reduction of shrinkage porosity in nickel-based superalloy castings by Taguchi method

In order to improve the castings quality of nickel-based superalloy in investment casting process, especially to reduce the shrinkage porosity, the processing parameters were optimized by numerical simulation and Taguchi method. The effects of processing parameters, such as pouring temperature, pouring time and mold shell preheating temperature, on the shrinkage porosity in the turbine nozzle investment castings prepared by K477 nickel-based superalloy were investigated. The results show that the effects of the mold shell preheating temperature, pouring temperature and pouring time are main influencing factors in turn, which are verified by the evaluation of signal-to-noise ratio and the analysis of variance. Further, based on the processing optimization, a K477 alloy turbine nozzle without shrinkage porosity was prepared with the optimized parameters: pouring temperature of [Formula: see text], mold shell preheating temperature of [Formula: see text] and pouring time of 14 s, respectively.