Advancing aluminium wheel casting with NUCLEANT* grain refining fluxes

According to Began and Careil, “those castings with slower cooling rates and larger variation in casting thickness require grain refinement more than other casting designs”. This includes wheel foundries where “grain refinement and cleaning are crucial for achieving the required feeding and cosmetic surface finish”.3 By promoting the formation of a finer granular structure in the casting, grain refinement improves feeding, elongation, and mechanical properties; increases fatigue resistance; improves casting machinability, reduces hot tears; helps disperse micro-shrinkage; decreases the size of porosities; and reduces thermal treatment cycles. Grain size is primarily a factor of cooling rate: slower cooling typically results in coarser grains, while faster cooling results in a finer structure.[4] Although