Whether in vehicles or in energy or machinery application: cast components are everywhere and display the best solution for load, manufacturing and lightweight optimized structures. No other manufacturing method than casting is able to combine these aspects with sustainable and high-recyclable materials and can cover masses from a few grams up to several 100 t. Nevertheless, all cast components need to withstand outer loads safe and reliable. The lecture “Manufacturing and Load Optimized Cast Components” shows how cast components can be made safe, smart, reliable and sustainable. Moreover, participants learn how cast components are produced, about the variety of applications, the material range and possibilities of quality assurance.

The lecture covers the following content:

• Introduction and motivation for the use of cast components, examples of the use of cast materials and components.

• Overview of the most important casting materials and their quasi-static and cyclic properties, overview of the molding processes, molding materials and coatings as well as their importance for the production of incomplete cast components, purposes and limitations of cast materials.

• operational stability of cast materials and components; quasi-static and cyclic strength parameters, cyclic characterization of cast materials for later component design, load analysis of operating and special loads, for example for wind energy, size influences on cast components and possibilities for estimating the lifespan of large castings.

• Typical material imperfections in casting and their estimation using solidification simulation, introduction to standardization for assessing imperfections (ASTM and BDG standards).

• Typical material deficiencies in casting and their estimation using solidification simulation, introduction to standardization for assessing deficiencies (ASTM and BDG standards).

• Design and construction of originally formed components under consideration of standards and guidelines (e.g., BDG K200), consideration of lightweight construction aspects through targeted simulation, practical examples.

• Durable design of cast components, challenges, and solutions for assessing the lifespan in the presence of material deficiencies through the integration of non-destructive testing, solidification simulation, and operational durability. New materials and alloy concepts concerning cyclic load capacity (e.g., ADI).

• Virtual-based design methods, fundamentals of process and solidification simulation, estimation of local microstructure development using solidification simulation, '4.0 Industry'.