TCE

Vacuum Centrifugal Casting Machine

TCE is a consistent, robust and easy to use vacuum centrifugal casting machine designed for small and medium casting laboratories.
TCE in Class B is particularly suited for Platinum, Palladium and Steel while TCE in Class A has been especially designed for Ti casting.
The casting process is fully programmable and consists of the following phases:

• Gas washing to remove oxygen from the melting chamber
• Alloy Melting in Vacuum or protective atmosphere
• Induction melting and stirring of the alloy to get perfect homogenization
• Accurate control of the temperature with a proprietary narrow band optical pyrometer
• Vacuuming of the chamber before casting
• Centrifugal casting with speed and acceleration digitally controllable
• Cooling in inert atmosphere before removing the flask

Casting is not only machines. For this reason TOPCAST invests in a deep and continuous research on crucible and investment materials to give to our customers always the state of the art casting solution for any alloy.

Class A and Class B

The main difference between TCE in Class A and TCE in Class B is the degree of vacuum, leak-back rate and ppm control of oxygen in the process chamber, that makes the TCE in Class A the best solution for casting reactive metals like Titanium.

Also the choice of the vacuum pumps station and the induction power generator is different and chosen to get the maximum result in Ti cast parts. Hence, TCE machines conceived in Class A are suitable for fields that require high quality control and low interstitial pick-up on the Ti cast parts, like Aerospace, Medical and Automotive.

TCE in Class B can instead be used where the price of the machines is an important factor and where no high quality control of the metallurgy of the Ti cast part is required, like in Jewellery, Eye-Glass and Leisure Industry (Golf Clubs, etc ...).

Regarding the mold size and crucible capacity, today with TCE you can cast up to 1.7 kg Ti and use flasks up to 140mm in diameter and 380mm in length.

We are also developing larger machines under customized specifications for what concerns Ti crucible capacity and Flask mould size. In case you are interested in getting a quotation for non-standard casting machine do not hesitate to send us your technical specifications.

TOPCAST also supplies special crucibles and investment powder for Titanium casting particularly designed to avoid alpha-case structure in the cast parts.
Crucibles for Ti have been designed to avoid alloy contamination and to withstand the high chemical and thermal shocks involved in Ti melting.

Technology & Features

Gas Wash Procedure

• Crucible and mould loading operation introduces oxygen
• The Gas Wash Purge procedure removes the oxygen (1) in a very fast and efficient way and then refills back the chambers with Argon, Nitrogen or Helium gas (2)

Class A

• Level of vacuum reached is extremely high
• Leak-back rate is carefully minimized
• Oxygen ppm in final atmosphere can be precisely controlled

Melting

• Advanced Self Tuning thermoregulation (AST™) with exact temperature control of the molten alloys
• Accurate control of the temperature with a proprietary narrow band optical pyrometer
• Medium frequency induction heating stirs the melted alloy and leads to a perfect homogeneity
• Magnetic field frequency has been studied for best coupling and energy transfer

Injection and Compression

When the charge is molten, the coil is retracted and the arm starts to spin.
During the spinning the metal gets out from the crucible and enters the flask.
Rotational speed profile, which controls the injection rate, can be regulated digitally for a consistent and reliable mould filling.
The final speed will compress the tree during the solidification phase to reduce shrinkage porosity.

Tree protection after casting

After the solidification phase, the flask cools down in a protective atmosphere to avoid oxidation.
A blinking lamp will signal the operator that the cycle has ended and the flask can be removed.

Technical data

TCE Class B

	TCE5	TCE10	TCE30	TCE50
Application	Small Labs	Medium Labs	Large Labs	Large Labs
Working capacity	500g Pt 250g Steel	1500g Pt 1000g Steel	5kg Steel	8kg Steel
Flask maximum diameter (mm)	Ø110	Ø130	Ø140	Ø140
Flask maximum height (mm)	120	180	300	380
Induction power	8 kW	10 kW	30 kW	50 kW
Speed	500 rpm	350 rpm	300 rpm	300 rpm
Vacuum pump	External	External	External	External
Max. temperature	2000 °C	2000 °C	2000 °C	2000 °C
Monitoring system for data acquisition
Vacuum leakage detector
Oxygen Analyzer
RS232 remote interface
Optycal Pyrometer
Rotating Thermocouple

Provided - Available on request

TCE Class A

	TCE8-Ti	TCE12-Ti	TCE30-Ti	TCE50-Ti
Application	Small Labs	Medium Labs	Large Labs	Large Labs
Working capacity	100g Ti	350g Ti	1000g Ti	1700g Ti
Flask maximum diameter (mm)	Ø110	Ø130	Ø140	Ø140
Flask maximum height (mm)	120	180	300	380
Induction power	8 kW	10 kW	30 kW	50 kW
Speed	500 rpm	350 rpm	300 rpm	300 rpm
Vacuum pump	External*	External*	External*	External*
Max. temperature	2000 °C	2000 °C	2000 °C	2000 °C
Monitoring system for process and production data collection
Vacuum leakage detector
Oxygen Analyzer
RS232 remote interface
Optical Pyrometer
Rotating Thermocouple

Provided - Available on request

* Vacuum performance, leak rate and oxygen content are sensitive data and cannot be disclosed in this page. Please contact TOPCAST for more information.