Casting blockage test (intake maniflods, exhaust manifolds, cylinder head oil and water cavity or other)
Do you have castings that could have a "flashing" that blocks the air flow?
Would you like to detect if a sand plug remains after the casting operation?
Do you pay operators to look visualy for defects with endoscopes inside your castings?
Do you need earplugs when you are close to your current blockage test machine?

Background:
ATEQ has been consulted by die casters in order to find a solution using air flow or air pressure to detect blockage. They wanted to detect "a 10% blockage" .
The test methods they had investigated were using large quantities of air flow, whether in pressure or vacuum to dtetct the problems. These "wind tunnels" were noisy, bulky and used a lot of energy for a result that was not entirely satisfactory.
These methods used air mass flow metering or read the substantial back pressure created by the part when the air flows through it.
Another labor intensive method used endoscopes and an operator to visualy control the castings.
Labor intensive methods are also by nature expensive.
ATEQ first tried to use the standard ATEQ leak test instrument back pressure features without much success: only major blockage was detected.
That's why ATEQ used its experience in air flow metering and low differential pressure measurement to develop a "low air flow" method to detect the smaller defects.

This method detects about the same defects as the large air flow methods: those that do restrict the air flow, using less air and a lighter setup, with less noise. If your defect does not create a difference in air flow through the part, it will not be detected by this method.
It was developped on the same proven hardware basis and rugged hardware components used by the other ATEQ quality control instruments (leak and flow testers), so the spare parts are readily available in ATEQ service offices worldwide.
So if you have a high volume production of castings with internal cavities like an automotive intake or exhaust manifolds, this technology could be interesting.
This method does not work on every application. It requires support from an ATEQ applications engineer in test fixture design. If you want to know if this method can be used on your application, feel free to contact the closest ATEQ USA applications engineer, or fill the form herafter to have them contact you..