CQI-27 Casting Process Tables Stakeholder Review Final PDF

CQI-27
Special Process: Casting System Assessment

DRAFT Version 2, Issue xx/2017
CQI-27 Special Process: Casting System Assessment

Complete Foundry Name:
Complete Address:
Phone Number:
Website:
DRAFT - Expires Feb 1, 2018
Date of Assessment:
Date of Previous Assessment(s):
Date of Re-Assessment
(if necessary):
Foundry Personnel Contacted:
Name: Title: Phone: Email:
Auditors/Assessors:
Name: Company: Phone: Email:
Number of Conforming Number of Number of Not

Types of Casting Processes at this Foundry:
Findings Non-Conforming Findings Applicable Findings
Process Table A
Sand Casting (Iron/Steel)
Process Table B
Centrifugal Castings
Process Table C
Centrifugal Liners
Process Table D
Investment Castings (Iron/Steel)
Process Table E
Aluminum SPM Cylinder Heads
Process Table F
Aluminum Sand Castings
Process Table G
Aluminum Metal Mold
Process Table H
Aluminum High Pressure Die Cast
Process Table I
Magnesium High Pressure Die Cast
Process Table J
Zinc High Pressure Die Cast
Page 1
CQI-27
PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)
All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

When performing the CQI-27 Casting Assessment the auditor shall verify foundry is conforming to customer requirements; including a customer approved Control Plan defining the agreed upon inspection testing
and frequencies. *If minimum requirements are not met, provide supporting records to justify actual conditions.
What is the scope covered by this audit? The entire foundry? A specific product line? A specific part number? Other?
Describe the scope of the audit:
Conforming /
Requirement DRAFT - Expires Feb 1, 2018 Observations / Comments
Item Category/Process Step Non-Conforming /
about Actual Condition
Not Applicable
1.0 Casting Design and Tooling
This Process Table is for grey iron, ductile iron, compacted graphite iron, and steel
castings used in automotive applications. There is a wide variety of molding processes
Casting Process
including green sand, air set bonded sands, shell molding, stacking molding, precision
sand core packages.
1. Casting plant must be compliant to customer specific software requirements.

A1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
transfer for the tooling and for part Drawings / Models.
1. The casting plant must use solidification modeling software such as MagmaSoft,
AnyCasting, ProCast, EKK, FLOW-3D or similar software approved by the customer
Product Engineering on the casting as part of the design process for the gating and
feeding system prior to tooling construction and prototype part submission. Simulation
A1.2 Casting Simulation
must include both fill and solidification analysis.
2. Results must be reviewed with the Customer Product Engineering.
3. At any high stress features in the FEA, the simulation should avoid hot spots, air
entrapment, multiple metal fronts converging.
1. The design responsible party must complete an FEA (Finite Element Analysis) for the
casting. The ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and percent elongation used in the
FEA must be over the lower limit of engineering requirement for the specified alloy for
similar applications.
2. The foundry should know the specific features of the casting where maximum
FEA Analysis - stresses exceed 50% of the Yield Strength. For purposes of this assessment, the
A1.3
Part One expression "high stress" refers to any feature exceeding 50% of the Yield Strength.
3. Yield Strength as used in this discussion is the x-bar (mean value) minus 3s (three
sigma) statistical calculation from tensile bars pulled at the casting source.
4. Any high stress features identified in the FEA must be evaluated when casting
simulations are reviewed, and when establishing product audits such as wall thickness,
microstructure, hardness, x-ray, crack inspections.
© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

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Conforming /
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5. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load Maximum
Stress greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, then Limit Testing at Extreme
Load conditions is appropriate. The foundry may not be responsible for this testing,
however, the foundry is responsible to provide worst-case parts for this testing.
Customer Product Engineering will define the worst-case conditions, such as internal
porosity, for Limit Testing.
FEA Analysis - 6. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load Maximum
A1.4
Part Two Stress greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, Customer Product
Engineering may restrict shipment of castings for serial production only to the extent of
what was provided for Limit Testing. This may be tighter than stated Product
Engineering acceptance criteria if the worst-case parts provided were not at the
extremes of the permissible acceptance criteria. In other words, if it was not Limit
Tested, it cannot be shipped. This is a decision to be made by customer Product
Engineering.
1. If the casting plant creates the raw casting drawing, that drawing must be approved
and released per the customer Product Engineering requirements.
2. If the casting plant creates the tolerance limits between the raw casting drawing and
any other drawing, those tolerance limits must be approved by the customer Product
Engineering.
3. Whenever possible, the X-Y-Z datum surfaces used on the machined components
should be the same X-Y-Z datum surfaces as the raw castings. This is for dimensional
A1.5 Casting Datum
control purposes and minimizing datum shifts between the casting and machined
surfaces (one of the causal factors related to thin-wall conditions). 4. Tooling
design must allow all raw casting locators (datum surfaces) to be on one piece of the
tooling steel. This is for dimensional control purposes. Customer Product Engineering
approval is required for any deviation from this concept.
5. The raw casting datum surfaces must not be removed by any post-processing or
machining unless customer Product Engineering has approved it.

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1. All production core boxes and molding patterns must be made from steel alloys
unless customer Product Engineering approves alternate material.
2. With customer Product Engineering prior approval, the supplier can utilize “soft
A1.6 Casting Tool Material tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts
are required. These sample castings may be used for activity such as product
validation tests, assembly builds, and machine tool runoffs. The castings must be
produced with the production intent melting and metal handling process.
Core boxes must be designed such that filing on the locating surfaces of core prints is
A1.7 Core Box Design
not allowed. Avoid blow tubes, vents, parting lines on the locating surfaces.
Slotted contoured vents are required to be used on casting cavity surfaces of core
A1.8 Core Box Vents
tooling cavities unless customer Product Engineering approves alternate construction.
1. The life of the tooling is tracked based on number of cycles.

2. There is an itemized list of regular maintenance items completed at pre-defined
frequencies.
A1.9 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.
4. Abrasive systems (such as shot blast and hand grinding) not permitted for cleaning
tooling. Non-abrasive systems (such as dry ice, high pressure water blast, solvent
washing and ultrasonic) are required.
1. Replacement inserts (new steel), where there is a customer specific requirement, a

PPAP approval may be required. Customer specific requirements may require a
process change request submission with possible production trial run requirements.
2. All tooling repair (welding, grinding, machining, insert replacement) requires
A1.10 Tool Changes
dimensional verification (internal approval) prior to re-instituting the tool for production
volumes.
3. The supplier complies with all customer requirements related to which PPAP
requirements are needed when tooling is corrected.

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1. All castings produced must be identified with customer branding requirements,
casting plant logo (as applicable), casting part number, cavity number, and cast date in
designated locations per customer requirements.
A1.11 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process
parameters specific to the casting may be required. Identification must be accurate and
readily visible on non-machined surfaces, and must not interfere with parting lines,
appearance, function, processing or assembly.
1. Gage and fixture plan must be reviewed and approved by customer. (May include in-
line gage equipment for 100% check of critical dimensions as identified on part
specification and/or part drawing.). 2. All
features on fixtures and gages which measure a dimensional aspect of the part must be
built within +/- 5-micron accuracy. This is the dimensional accuracy of the fixture and
gage; not the dimensional accuracy of the part. Customer approval is required for any
other accuracy such as 10% or less of part working tolerance.
3. All surfaces of fixtures and gages which touch the part must be made from hard tool
A1.12 Fixtures and Gages
steel unless customer Product Engineering approves other materials.
4. The tips of all clamps on fixtures and gages must be built with replaceable tips unless
customer Product Engineering approves a different design.
5. Production fixtures must use hydraulic or pneumatic clamping during the machining
operations. Manual clamping is not allowed.
6. Variable gages must pass Gage R&R per AIAG or similar standard.
7. All fixtures and gages must be certified periodically either by in-house if capable or
by third party.
2.0 Metal Control
Incoming/Returned Material Raw /Returned materials must be stored without mixing them in marked storage areas
A2.1
Storage by type.
Charging Materials and Alloy

A2.2 Charge materials and alloys going into melting furnaces must be weighed first.
Additions

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1. Chemistry must be controlled at each key point in the process (melting, holding, and
pouring).
2. There must be a spectrometer on site for chemistry control. Industry Standards, such
as ASTM E1999, must be followed for sampling, verification, standardization and
calibration.
3. There must be a Gas Combustion C/S analyzer on site. Gas combustion shall be the
method for controlling carbon unless customer Product Engineering approves another
measurement method.
4. Gas combustion (carbon/sulfur analyzer such as LECO or similar) does not have to
be used for 100% of the measurements if carbon limits are not mandatory in the
customer part number specific requirements. The spectrometer can be used as long as
it is crosschecked daily against the gas combustion. Results of the crosscheck must be
documented. The spectrometer carbon must crosscheck within +/- 0.05 of the value
A2.3 Metal Chemistry
from gas combustion, preferably within +/- 0.03. If carbon limits are mandatory in the
customer part number specific requirements, then gas combustion must be used to
verify all carbon analyses prior to shipment for each heat produced.
5. The Spectrometer must have certified Master Calibration Standards which cover the
range of each chemistry element being controlled. Sufficient Calibration Masters must
be on site in order to audit each element being controlled in direct comparison with a
Calibration Master.
6. A procedure must be posted near the spectrometer which clearly defines the
permissible tolerance range of the Master calibration Standards.
7. There must be control limits for all key elements of the material grade including
carbon equivalent (typically C + 1/3Si) and customer defined elements.
8. For ductile iron and compacted graphite iron, there must be a minimum limit for
sulfur. Preferably over 0.006%.
For any elements with customer specified mandatory limits, these limits must be
A2.4 Chemistry
reduced by the tolerance permitted on the Master calibration Standards.
For cast iron, a Thermal Arrest unit, also known as a CE Meter, must be used on the
A2.5 Chemistry melt deck for in-process checks unless customer Product Engineering approves that it
is not required.

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1. Immersion is the preferred method for temperature checks at each metal holding
location with upper and lower control limits.
A2.6 Metal Temperature
2. Holding furnaces must be capable of controlling metal temperature at the metal
extraction point to +/-10°C.
1. All metal must be post-inoculated. This could be in the ladle, in-stream, or in the
mold.
A2.7 Cast Iron Inoculation
2. Post-inoculation based on weight is preferred. If the post-inoculation addition is
based on volume or timers, there must be a regular audit to verify the weight.
The carbon raiser used as an addition to electric melting furnaces shall be less than
0.3% volatiles content unless customer Product Engineering approves a higher limit.
Volatiles content can be provided on Material Certification from supplier of the carbon
A2.8 Carbon Raiser
raiser. Petroleum Coke by-products and industrial graphite scraps with high volatiles
content can cause porosity in castings. This volatiles requirement does not apply to
organic charcoal carbon raisers such as charred coconut hulls.
3.0 Magnesium Treatment Section 3.0 is for Ductile Iron and Compacted Graphite Iron
1. Forms or molds must be used to build or repair the treatment ladle. The dimension of
the reaction chamber must be verified after the build or repair.
2. For open top sandwich and wiring process treatment ladles, the recommended
A3.1 Treatment Ladle
internal height to diameter ratio is 2:1 or greater.
3. The treatment ladle shall never be poured with any other irons other than the ductile
iron.
All the materials, such as magnesium alloy, cover material, inoculate, and other alloys,
A3.2 Weighing System must be weighed before they are added to the treatment ladle.
For compacted graphite iron, the iron to be poured must be weighed in order to adjust
A3.3 Metal Weight the vermiculizer addition. For ductile iron, some customers may require the iron to be
weighed.

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Magnesium Treatment materials must be added to the treatment ladle as late as
A3.4 Magnesium (alloy) Addition
possible prior to tap out to avoid the burn (oxidation) of the magnesium alloy.
If cover material is used, clean steel plates/punching are preferred. The materials must
A3.5 Alloy/ Cover Material Addition
be added in proper order and location in the treatment ladle.
There must be documented instruction/process to assure adequate pre-heating of the

A3.6 Treatment Ladle Temperature
treatment ladle prior to tap out.
Tap out temperature must be monitored and controlled within an established range and
A3.7 Treatment Temperature
the record must be documented.
There must be a system to avoid the direct pouring over the material chamber of the
A3.8 Magnesium Treatment Filling
treatment ladle.
The slag must be completely removed from the treatment ladles before transferring to
A3.9 Slagging
holders or pouring into molds.
The nodularizing reaction time may be required by customer to be measured and

A3.10 Magnesium Reaction Time
documented.
The chemistry must be checked for each treatment ladle after nodularizing.
A3.11 Chemistry Control For nitrogen covered pressure auto-pour process, the chemistry must be checked
before each addition of new treated iron.
1. An automatic feeding system is required for straightening the wire and for controlling
the feeding speed.
A3.12 Cored Wire Magnesium Treatment 2. It is recommended that the guiding tube is perpendicular to the bath for vertical
feeding.
3. The wire supplier must be ISO or similarly certified.
There must be a maximum time limit from nodularization treatment to last mold poured.
A3.13 Fade Time There must be a timer alarm which is clearly visible or audible located where it is
obvious to the workers at the cast line.

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Cores
4.0
(Cold Box, Hot Box and Shell)
Cores may be purchased, or blown in-house. If they are purchased, core supplier must
A4.1 Outsourced Cores
be in full compliance with this Process Table.
1. The compressed air supply for cold box blowers must have a dew point at
atmospheric pressure below -40º C.
2. Cold box core boxes must be designed with tamping pins in areas of casting
surfaces.
3. Cold box cores must be stored in an environment below 35C and below 40%
humidity unless customer Product Engineering approves higher limits. Special rooms
with temperature and humidity control may be necessary in order to comply with this
A4.2 Cold Box
requirement. Foundries with many large cores may have trouble to comply with this
requirement due to the storage area necessary; they must coat (dip/paint) the cores
within two hours after they are blown and must pour them off with 48 hours of being
blown.
4. Cold box mix recipe should be verified by measured weight of resins.
5. Weight of mixed core sand should be minimized; 6 to 10 blows typical, not to exceed
one hour of mixed sand.

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1. The compressed air supply for hot box blowers must have a dew point at atmospheric
pressure below -40º C.
2. Hot box core boxes must have internal thermocouples. The temperatures must be
displayed. There must be an alarm if the temperature is out of range. Automatic
temperature adjustment is required unless customer Product Engineering approves
another adjustment method.
3. Hot box cores must be stored in an environment below 35C and below 40% humidity
unless customer Product Engineering approves higher limits. Special rooms with
A4.3 Hot Box
temperature and humidity control may be necessary in order to comply with this
blown.
4. Hot box mix recipe should be verified by measured weight of resins.
Shell core boxes must have internal thermocouples. The temperatures must be
A4.4 Shell Core
Repair of cores requires customer approval for this practice. If allowed, the repairs must
A4.5 Core Repair
be done in the core department, not at the mold line.
There must be a regular audit to cut open cores to check to see if they are properly
A4.6 Cured Core Check
cured hard to the center.

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1. If any cores are wet coated, they must be oven dried prior to use.
Coating / painting / dipping / spraying any liquids onto the cores is permitted as long as
the cores get baked dry. Includes water base, alcohol base, oil base, kerosene base,
A4.7 Core Coating methylated spirits, or any other liquid. This includes flammable coatings; burning them
is not sufficient.
2.The Baume or viscosity of coatings must be measured and controlled.
3. Coating tanks must have continuous mixing and filtering.
A4.8 Core Coating The use of graphite coatings is discouraged. They are a common cause of inclusions.
A4.9 Chaplet/Spacer Any chaplets, spacers, or chills used must be completely clean and dry.
Filing on cores at the cast machines is not allowed.

A4.10 Core Preparation Cores and core assemblies must be thoroughly blown off from all sides before they are
set into molds.
1.Cores must be thoroughly blown off from all sides before they are used to make core
assemblies.
2. Core assemblies must be gaged.
3. Cores and core assemblies must be inspected for damage or breakage before
delivery to the cast machines.
4. Inspection criteria must be clearly defined and displayed. Core defects and their
A4.11 Core Assembly
location should be documented.
5. Use of automated or manual assist setters are preferred for assembled core packs.
6. For cylinder blocks, the cylinder bore core package must be set into the mold by a
fixture which locates off of the flask pins and bushings. Manual placement of the
cylinder bore cores is not allowed. The fixture can be moved to the mold line manually,
usually by operators and a hoist. An automated fixture is strongly preferred.

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1. Cores must not be stacked touching each other. Adequate storage racks must be
provided to place cores in single layers.
A4.12 Core Storage
2. Racks, containers, trays, may need foam padding or similar as appropriate to protect
cores from damage during movement or handling.
1. During regular production, the core inventory must not exceed 48 hours, preferably
less than 24 hours. Customer approval required for more than 48 hours core inventory
A4.13 Core Inventory as a regular practice.
2. Cold box cores must have 2 hours minimum wait time after being blown before
placing in molds.
5.0 Molding/Pouring/Casting Operation
Define work instructions or procedure for pre-heating ladles, pour boxes, stopper rods,
A5.1 Start-Up Process
transfer ladles.
Molten metal from the melting furnaces may be tapped directly to go to the cast line, or
A5.2 Metal Transfer it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they
must have heating capability to maintain temperature.
Filters are required to be used in all molds unless customer Product Engineering
A5.3 Filter
approves production without filters. Filters are preferably foam (sponge) type 30 ppi.
1. If auto pouring holders are used, they must have heat unless customer Product
Engineering approves production without heat.
2. Auto pouring holders must be capable of controlling metal temperature at the metal
extraction point to +/-10C.
A5.4 Auto Pouring
3. Auto holders and tilting auto ladles must have an infrared measurement sensor to
check the temperature of the metal stream for each mold poured unless customer
Product Engineering approves an alternative method of temperature control. The sensor
must alarm when the temperature is out of range.

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1. Automatic pouring of molten metal into the mold is required unless customer Product
A5.5 Metal Pouring Engineering approves manual pouring.
2. Pouring ladles should be on heat when not in use.
If manual ladle or auto ladle pouring, the ladles must have a teapot spout construction in
A5.6 Ladle Construction
order to hold slag back.
Immersion temperature audit from each ladle or pour box to confirm that all molds were
A5.7 Batch Pour System
poured within specified temperature range.
Charging raw materials or scrap into the auto pouring holders or ladles and running
A5.8 Metal Quality
production out of them at the same time is prohibited.
Alloying into the auto pouring holders or ladles is allowed, but must be minimized in
A5.9 Alloying
order to prevent defects such as inclusions.
1.The molds must have traceability to each ladle / heat of metal poured. The location for
the first mold and last mold per ladle / heat must be easily identifiable.
A5.10 Mold Traceability 2. Cast lines with multiple cooling lines must track each mold from each ladle / heat of
metal poured. Strongly prefer all molds from the same ladle / heat to be sequential in
the same cooling line.
Equipment computer programs or mechanical limits for pouring and cycle times must be
A5.11 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change
the program or settings.
Cast machine should have real time closed loop monitoring which is either tied into the
shakeout control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control limits.
A5.12 Control Limits
Castings that are outside the control limits must be segregated for additional
inspections.

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1. The last iron poured from a ladle / heat must be nodularity checked before the first
mold poured from that same ladle / heat reaches shakeout.
2. These nodularity checks at the cast line must be from a microstructure inspection;
they must not be based on any ultrasonic correlation with a sample specimen. The AFS
standard coupon is preferred.
3. The cast line and shakeout must be built such that suspect low nodularity scrap can
Nodularity Control for ductile iron be reliably separated from the rest of production. There should be a switch before the
A5.13
and compacted graphite iron shakeout where an operator can Stop/Start the cast line. Any suspect castings must be
isolated for further testing and evaluation.
4. Suspect low nodularity scrap is not allowed to go through a rotating drum unless
customer Product Engineering approves this practice. It must be diverted ahead of the
drum.
5. The intent of the nodularity controls is that suspect bad iron is never mixed with good
iron.
1. There must be an on-site sand lab equipped for checking both molding sand and core
sand.
A5.14 Sand Lab 2. The sand lab must be capable of making audits for common parameters such as
Sieve analysis, loss on ignition (LOI), core strength tests, compactability, moisture, %
volatiles, methylene blue test for active clay, compression, permeability.
For ductile iron and compacted graphite iron, there must be a regular audit to measure
the sulfur content of the molding sand in order to prevent degenerated graphite at the
A5.15 Sulfur in the Sand
casting surface. The sulfur in the molding sand must not exceed 0.15% unless customer
Product Engineering approves a higher limit.
The sand system must have sufficient cooling systems and controls to keep the
A5.16 Sand Temperature temperature of the molding sand going into the molds below specified temperature per
the control plan. It is preferred not to exceed 40C sand temperature at the mold line.

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1. The cast line must provide a long enough time to assure castings have cooled to a
black color at shakeout. If castings are above 727C at shake out, customer may require
residual stresses to be measured on a casting at the shortest shakeout time to assure
cracking is not an issue. A metallographic examination may also be required to be
A5.17 Shakeout Time
assessed as machinability may be a concern. Results of these measurements and
shakeout process must be reviewed and approved by customer Product Engineering.
2. The shakeout method must not crack the castings. For cylinder blocks, rotary drums
are not allowed.
Casting
6.0
Cleaning and Finishing
Wedge cutter is preferred for de-gating. Casting must not be damaged during de-gating
A6.1 De-gating operation. If hammer is used for de-gate, the hammering locations shall be specified to
prevent the casting to be hit by hammer.
1. Must have Preventative Maintenance plan.

2. Must have table condition for each individual shot blast machine including shot time,
application ampere, discharge pressure.
A6.2 Shot Blast
3. Must define when and how to replenish shots due to worn and lost.
4. Must define how to handle the dropped/ stuck/re-working castings.
5. Must have standard to qualify shot blast finished part per customer specification.
1. Must have documented check-list and work instruction to verify that the trim-
press/grinding machine works properly and parts meet customer specification/tolerance
A6.3 Trimming/Grinding Operation for burrs, parting lines, gates and riser contacts.
2. If auto-trimming is used, it is preferred to have workpiece set trouble detection device
(interlock). When a trouble is detected, the equipment is stopped automatically.
7.0 Casting Inspection and Testing

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Retained Material or Cleanliness Equipment must be available onsite to properly administer retained material inspection
A7.1
Requirement per customer requirements.
1. As a minimum, the casting plant shall have a programmable Coordinate Measuring

Machine (CMM) on site. The CMM must be run in an automatic mode. Where possible,
the application of point cloud/laser scanning inspection technology is preferred. When
used in combination with point cloud scanning technology, the CMM is considered the
“gage of record” for dimensional measurements because of precision associated with
the points measured.
Dimensional Inspection - 2. The casting plant shall maintain a CMM hit point map/drawing showing all CMM hit
A7.2
Part One points that are agreed upon between the casting plant and the customer. (Point Cloud
Inspection/laser scanning can be used in place of CMM inspection if agreed upon with
customer Product Engineering).
3. The raw casting datums must be included in all CMM hitpoint programs. The intent is
to be able to dimensionally check the casting at any stage of manufacture in order to
know if the raw casting was To Print. This expressly includes being able to check a
finish machined component to determine if the raw casting was To Print.

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4. The CMM program must include checking the flatness of each individual raw casting
datum surface if the datum pad is intended to be a flat surface. Preferably less than
0.250mm.
5. Point cloud/laser scanning inspection must use the part-design datum construction to
align the measurement data. Unless otherwise specified by the customer, "best-fit" data
alignment is not allowed.
6. The casting plant is responsible for comparing the scan with the 3D Math Model. In
all cases the Point Cloud/laser scan must be aligned to the math model using the X-Y-Z
Dimensional Inspection -
A7.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
and the responsible APQP Quality Engineer.
7. Scan reports must include a screen shot showing which surface features were used
to align the scan to the 3D Math Model; and what is the distance, D, of those scanned
surface features to each of the same features in the 3D Math Model. The scan report
must clearly state which version of the 3D Math Model was used.
8. Point Cloud/laser scanning Inspection is recommended for prototype parts and PPAP
parts as defined by the customer specific requirements. The scanning may be out-
sourced.
Cast tolerances apply to castings which have not been painted, plated, or coated. There
A7.4 Casting Tolerance should be Casting dimensional data/layouts for castings which have not been painted,
plated, or coated.
1. There must be regular audits to section raw castings for wall thickness verification;
including any high stress features in the FEA. If the supplier is responsible for any
machining, there must be regular audits to section machined castings for wall thickness
A7.5 Wall Thickness
verification.
2. For cylinder blocks, the supplier must have on-site a portable ultrasonic device for
checking bore wall thickness.
For ductile iron and compacted graphite iron, the supplier is responsible for the
correlation of Ultrasonic Velocity or Resonant Frequency Testing to %nodularity to
A7.6 Nodularity Verification
define limits for acceptance at the test location for each part number. Customer may
require 100% ultrasonic checking for some applications.

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1. The supplier must be capable of conducting internal Integrity inspection using non-
destructive testing method (x-ray) or destructive testing (sectioning) per customer
A7.7 Internal Integrity requirements; including any high stress features in the FEA.
2. The supplier shall have X-ray capability available. X-ray does not have to be on-site.
However, the location and access to it must be reasonable for development purposes.
Supplier is responsible to acquire proper non-destructive inspection tools to evaluate for

A7.8 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
The supplier must be capable of conducting surface integrity testing using non-
A7.9 Surface Integrity (Crack Detection) destructive testing techniques (magnetic particle inspection, resonance testing, eddy
current) per customer requirements; including any high stress features in the FEA.
1. Customer must approve any salvage repair procedures. Casting repairs, such as
welding, epoxy, Devcon, and impregnation, are not permitted, unless approved by
customer Product Engineering.
2. If repairs are allowed, repair method and procedures must be approved by Customer
A7.10 Repairs
Product Engineering.
3. If straightening is allowed, a customer Product Engineering approved method is
required, normally with a fixtured, automated process. Manual methods should not be
used.
8.0 Material Properties
1. The supplier shall have a metallurgical lab located on-site with capabilities to analyze
chemistries, hardness, microstructure, % nodularity, area fraction porosity, and any
other features specified by customer Product Engineering.
A8.1 Laboratory Location
2. The supplier shall have Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) capability available.
The SEM does not have to be on-site. However, the location and access to it must be
reasonable for defect analyses.

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. Material property testing must be defined per customer design records.

2. Mechanical properties testing must be on site unless customer Product Engineering
approves another location.
3. Mechanical property testing must include ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and
A8.2 Material Property Testing percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
the specimen unless customer Product Engineering agrees to some other method.
4. If retest or replacement is necessary must be with agreement of the customer
5. Testing begins with prototypes and continues through regular production.
The casting source must prepare test bars from a location approved by customer
Product Engineering. For example, these might be cut from a casting or from a
separately cast bar. Mechanical properties are often required from test bars cut from
A8.3 Mechanical Property
actual castings in an area designated on the engineering drawing or in the part quality
document. The test bar location in the casting will be dimensioned from casting
features.
1. Metallurgical examination is to be done by the supplier prior to any component testing

to insure microstructure meets engineering drawing specifications.
2. A metallograph image analyzer is required on-site unless customer Product
A8.4 Microstructure Analysis Engineering approves some other method of measuring features in the images.
3. Reference photographs must be readily available at the metallograph for all
microstructure requirements.
4. Microstructure audits must include any high stress features in the FEA.

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. Hardness testing is to be done on-site per ASTM E10/ISO 6506. Supplier must have
certified Master blocks on-site for auditing the calibration of the hardness tester.
2. The Tolerance range for the Master block must be posted on the hardness tester.
3. The Tolerance range for the Master must not exceed +/- 3%.
4. The customer specified hardness range must be reduced by the tolerance allowed on
A8.5 Hardness Testing the hardness Master block.
5. Unless Product Engineering specifies otherwise, Brinell hardness test using a
3000Kg load, 10 mm diameter indenter, and 10 - 15 second dwell time.
6. Hardness to be measured at a specified location from customer Product Engineering.
7. If hardness readings are out of specification, all castings in the Lot shall be hardness
tested with any out-of-specification castings rejected.
1. Heat treating must be before machining unless customer Product Engineering

agrees to heat treat after machining. Heat treating may be in-house or outsourced. Heat
treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System
A8.6 Heat Treatment
Assessment (HTSA), published by AIAG.
2. Austempered Ductile Iron often has some pre-machining before heat treatment.
Features to be pre-machined must be approved by customer Product Engineering.
The supplier is responsible for any residual stress testing requirements unless
Customer Product Engineering agrees that the supplier is not responsible for it. Testing
A8.7 Residual Stress Testing
may be outsourced. Customer Product Engineering must approve the source which
conducts the testing.
The supplier is responsible for any fatigue testing requirements unless Customer
Product Engineering agrees that the supplier is not responsible for it. Testing may be
A8.9 Fatigue Testing
outsourced. Customer Product Engineering must approve the source which conducts
the testing.
9.0 Leak Testing

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. Some castings may require leak testing. Leak rate specification must be defined on
the customer Product Engineering document.
2. Acceptable methods for leak testing are: air under water, sniffers, pressure decay,
mass flow.
3. Pressure decay / mass flow cannot measure Zero leakage. Zero leakage
A9.1 Leak Test Requirement applications must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
4. Pressure decay / mass flow must pass Gage R&R below 10% at the maximum leak
specification.
5. Pressure decay / mass flow cannot pass Gage R&R at very low leak rate
specifications. These very low leak rate applications must also use air under water or
sniffers.
1. Castings must be thoroughly dried before going into pressure decay / mass flow. An
in-line drier is preferred.
2. Casting cavities must be leak tested separately in order to assure there are no cross
channel leaks.
3. Pressure decay / mass flow controllers must have automatic temperature
measurement and adjustment.
4. Leak Masters must have leak rates within +/- 10% of the maximum permissible leak
rate of the part.
5. A Zero Leak Master is required for pressure decay / mass flow. A Zero Leak Master
A9.2 Leak Test Process is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
6. Each day that the pressure decay / mass flow is used, the measured leak rate for the
Zero Leak Master and for the Max Leak Master must be recorded and plotted.
7. Customer maximum leak rate limits must be reduced by the observed Bias and
Variation of the measurement system (such as the +/- variation of the Zero Leak
Master). 8. A
certified orifice may be used as the Leak Master and/or as the Zero Leak Master if
customer Product Engineering approves.
9. Pressure decay / mass flow test equipment must automatically stamp good parts
while the part is still in the test fixture.

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
1 The supplier shall have water dunk capability on site for determining the location of
leaks on castings as shipped to the customer AND for fully machined castings returned
from the customer. 2.
Water dunk must use water temperature at least 20C.
A9.3 Water Dunk Capability
3. 100% water dunk, zero bubbles, is common for components with a Zero Leak
requirement. Typical water dunk parameters are 5 bar air pressure, minimum 15
seconds without a bubble. Air pressure and minimum time must be approved by
1. Impregnation is not allowed unless expressly approved by customer Product

Engineering. Approval must be documented per Customer specific policy, such as on
the part print. 2.
Customer Product Engineering must approve the sealant (resin) to be used.
A9.4 Impregnation
3. Customer Product Engineering must approve the impregnation source which would
perform the impregnation.
4. Impregnation must be in full compliance with any customer specific Statement Of
Requirements for Impregnation of Castings.
1. Some castings may require flow testing. Flow rate specification must be defined on
2. Flow testing must use automated air flow equipment. Using round balls or probes is
A9.5 Flow Testing
not acceptable unless approved by customer Product Engineering.
3. Flow test equipment must automatically stamp good parts while the part is still in the
test fixture.
1. Error-proofing is required before final packaging if similar looking part numbers are in
production in the same facility.
A9.6 Error-Proofing
2. Scheduling production of similar looking part numbers on different production shifts is
not error-proofing.

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CQI-27
PROCESS TABLE B - Centrifugal Castings

When performing the CQI-27 Casting Assessment the auditor shall verify foundry is conforming to customer requirements; including a customer approved Control Plan defining the agreed upon inspection testing and
frequencies.
*If minimum requirements are not met, provide supporting records to justify actual conditions.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
This Process Table is for ductile iron, grey iron, and steel castings (except Centrifugal Liners
Casting Process which has its own Table). Variations of centrifugal casting are used to produce many automotive
components. The process ranges from highly automated cells to labor intensive process flows.

B1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data transfer for
the tooling and for part Drawings / Models.
1. The design responsible party must complete an FEA (Finite Element Analysis) for the casting.
The ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and percent elongation used in the FEA must be over
the lower limit of engineering requirement for the specified alloy for similar applications.
2. The foundry should know the specific features of the casting where maximum stresses exceed
50% of the Yield Strength. For purposes of this assessment, the expression "high stress" refers to
FEA Analysis -
B1.2 any feature exceeding 50% of the Yield Strength.
Part One
3. Yield Strength as used in this discussion is the x-bar (mean value) minus 3s (three sigma)
statistical calculation from tensile bars pulled at the casting source.
4. Any high stress features identified in the FEA must be evaluated when casting simulations are
reviewed, and when establishing product audits such as wall thickness, microstructure, hardness,
x-ray, crack inspections.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
5. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load Maximum Stress
greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, then Limit Testing at Extreme Load conditions
is appropriate. The foundry may not be responsible for this testing, however, the foundry is
responsible to provide worst-case parts for this testing. Customer Product Engineering will define
the worst-case conditions, such as internal porosity, for Limit Testing.
FEA Analysis - 6. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load Maximum Stress
B1.3
Part Two greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, Customer Product Engineering may restrict
shipment of castings for serial production only to the extent of what was provided for Limit Testing.
This may be tighter than stated Product Engineering acceptance criteria if the worst-case parts
provided were not at the extremes of the permissible acceptance criteria. In other words, if it was
not Limit Tested, it cannot be shipped. This is a decision to be made by customer Product
Engineering.
1. The casting plant should use solidification modeling software such as MagmaSoft, AnyCasting,
ProCast, EKK, FLOW-3D or similar software approved by customer on the tube prior to tooling
B1.4 Casting Simulation
construction and prototype part submission.
The surfaces to be used as datums for dimensional purposes must be reviewed and approved by
B1.5 Casting Datum
1. All production molds must be made from steel alloys unless customer Product Engineering
approves alternate material.
2. With customer Product Engineering prior approval, the supplier can utilize “soft tools” to
B1.6 Tube Mold Material produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts are required.
These sample castings may be used for activity such as product validation tests, assembly builds,
and machine tool runoffs. The castings must be produced with the production intent melting and
metal handling process.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. The life of the molds is tracked based on number of cycles.

2. There is an itemized list of regular maintenance items completed at pre-defined frequencies.
3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.
B1.7 Tooling Maintenance
4. Abrasive systems (such as shot blast and hand grinding) not permitted for cleaning tooling. Non-
abrasive systems (such as dry ice, high pressure water blast, solvent washing and ultrasonic) are
required.
1. Replacement inserts (new steel), where there is a customer specific requirement, a PPAP
approval may be required. Customer specific requirements may require a process change request
submission with possible production trial run requirements.
B1.8 Tool Changes 2. All tooling repair (welding, grinding, machining, insert replacement) requires dimensional
verification (internal approval) prior to re-instituting the tool for production volumes.
3. The supplier complies with all customer requirements related to which PPAP requirements are
needed when tooling is corrected.
1. For piston rings, all rings produced must be identified with customer branding requirements,
casting plant logo (as applicable), casting part number, and cast date in designated locations per
customer requirements.
B1.9 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process parameters
specific to the casting may be required. Identification must be accurate and readily visible on non-
machined surfaces, and must not interfere with parting lines, appearance, function, processing or
assembly.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. Gage and fixture plan must be reviewed and approved by customer. (May include in-line gage
equipment for 100% check of critical dimensions as identified on part specification and/or part
drawing.). 2.
All features on fixtures and gages which measure a dimensional aspect of the part must be built
within +/- 5-micron accuracy. This is the dimensional accuracy of the fixture and gage; not the
dimensional accuracy of the part. Customer approval is required for any other accuracy such as
10% or less of part working tolerance.
3. All surfaces of fixtures and gages which touch the part must be made from hard tool steel
B1.10 Fixtures and Gages
unless customer Product Engineering approves other materials.
4. The tips of all clamps on fixtures and gages must be built with replaceable tips unless customer
Product Engineering approves a different design.
5. Production fixtures must use hydraulic or pneumatic clamping during the machining operations.
Manual clamping is not allowed.
7. All fixtures and gages must be certified periodically either by in-house if capable or by third
party.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
2.0 Metal Control
Incoming/Returned Material
B2.1 Raw /Returned materials must be stored without mixing them in marked storage bins by type.
Storage

B2.2 Individual charge materials going into melting furnaces must be weighed first.
Additions
1. Chemistry must be controlled at each key point in the process (melting, holding, and pouring).
2. There must be a spectrometer on site for chemistry control. Industry Standards, such as ASTM
E1999, must be followed for sampling, verification, standardization and calibration.
3. There must be a Gas Combustion C/S analyzer on site. Gas combustion shall be the method for
controlling carbon unless customer Product Engineering approves another measurement method.
4. Gas combustion (carbon/sulfur analyzer such as LECO or similar) does not have to be used for
100% of the measurements if carbon limits are not mandatory in the customer part number
specific requirements. The spectrometer can be used as long as it is crosschecked daily against
the gas combustion. Results of the crosscheck must be documented. The spectrometer carbon
must crosscheck within +/- 0.05 of the value from gas combustion, preferably within +/- 0.03. If
B2.3 Metal Chemistry carbon limits are mandatory in the customer part number specific requirements, then gas
combustion must be used to verify all carbon analyses prior to shipment for each heat produced.
5. The Spectrometer must have certified Master Calibration Standards which cover the range of
each chemistry element being controlled. Sufficient Calibration Masters must be on site in order
to audit each element being controlled in direct comparison with a Calibration Master.
6. A procedure must be posted near the spectrometer which clearly defines the permissible
tolerance range of the Master calibration Standards.
7. There must be control limits for all key elements of the material grade including carbon
equivalent (typically C + 1/3Si) and customer defined elements.
8. For piston rings, titanium should be controlled below 0.015%.
9. For ductile iron, there must be a minimum limit for sulfur. Preferably over 0.006%.
For any mandatory elements, control limits must be reduced by the tolerance allowed on the
B2.4 Chemistry
Master Calibration Standards.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
A Thermal Arrest unit, also known as a CE Meter, must be used on the melt deck for in-process
B2.5 Chemistry
checks unless customer Product Engineering approves that it is not required.
1. Immersion is the preferred method for temperature checks at each metal holding location with
upper and lower control limits.
B2.6 Metal Temperature
2. Holding furnaces must be capable of controlling metal temperature at the metal extraction point
to +/-10°C.
1. All metal must be post-inoculated. This could be in the ladle, in-stream, or in the mold.
B2.7 Inoculation 2. Post-inoculation based on weight is preferred. If the post-inoculation addition is based on
volume or timers, there must be a regular audit to verify the weight.
The carbon raiser used as an addition to electric melting furnaces shall be less than 0.3% volatiles
content unless customer Product Engineering approves a higher limit. Volatiles content can be
provided on Material Certification from supplier of the carbon raiser. Petroleum Coke by-products
B2.8 Carbon Raiser
and industrial graphite scraps with high volatiles content can cause porosity in castings. This
volatiles requirement does not apply to organic charcoal carbon raisers such as charred coconut
hulls.
3.0 Magnesium Treatment This section for Ductile Iron
1. Forms or molds must be used to build or repair the treatment ladle. The dimension of the
reaction chamber must be verified after the build or repair.
B3.1 Treatment Ladle 2. For open top sandwich and wiring process treatment ladles, the recommended internal height to
diameter ratio is 2:1 or greater.
3. The treatment ladle shall never be poured with any other irons other than the ductile iron.
1. All the materials, such as magnesium alloy, cover material, inoculate, and other alloys, must be
weighed before they are added to the treatment ladle.
B3.2 Weighing System
2. A system should also be in place for weighing the molten iron poured into the treatment ladle.
Some customers may require the iron to be weighed.
Magnesium Treatment materials must be added to the treatment ladle as late as possible prior to
B3.3 Magnesium (Alloy) Addition
tap out to avoid the burn (oxidation) of the magnesium alloy.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
If cover material is used, clean steel plates/punching are preferred. The materials must be added
B3.4 Alloy/ Cover Material Addition
in proper order and location in the treatment ladle.
There must be documented instruction/process to assure adequate pre-heating of the treatment

B3.5 Treatment Ladle Temperature
ladle prior to tap out.
Tap out temperature must be monitored and controlled within an established range and the record
B3.6 Treatment Temperature
must be documented.
There must be a system to avoid the direct pouring over the material chamber of the treatment
B3.7 Magnesium Treatment Filling
ladle.
The slag must be completely removed from the treatment ladles before transferring to holders or
B3.8 Slagging
pouring into molds.
B3.9 Magnesium Reaction Time The nodularizing reaction time may be required by customer to be measured and documented.
The chemistry must be checked for each treatment ladle after nodularizing.
B3.10 Chemistry Control For nitrogen covered pressure auto-pour process, the chemistry must be checked before each
addition of new treated iron.
1. An automatic feeding system is required for straightening the wire and for controlling the feeding
speed.
B3.11 Cored Wire Magnesium Treatment
2. It is recommended that the guiding tube is perpendicular to the bath for vertical feeding.
3. The wire supplier must be ISO or similarly certified.
4.0 Metal Control
The centrifugal casting machines are commonly called spinners. Metal at the spinners may be in a
B4.1 Equipment
ladle or in a holder.
Define work instructions or procedure for pre-heating ladles, pour boxes, stopper rods, transfer
B4.2 Start-Up Process
ladles.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
Molten metal from the melting furnaces may be tapped directly to go to the cast line, or it may be
B4.3 Metal Transfer transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they must have heating
capability to maintain temperature.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. If auto pouring holders are used, they must have heat unless customer Product Engineering
approves production without heat.
2. Auto pouring holders must be capable of controlling metal temperature at the metal extraction
B4.4 Auto Pouring point to +/-10C.3. Auto holders and tilting auto ladles must have an infrared measurement sensor
to check the temperature of the metal stream for each mold poured unless customer Product
Engineering approves an alternative method of temperature control. The sensor must alarm when
the temperature is out of range.
1.Automatic pouring of molten metal into the mold is required unless customer Product
Engineering approves manual pouring. Manual pouring into a tilt pour basin is allowed; the tilting
B4.5 Metal Pouring
action must be automated.
Immersion temperature audit from each ladle or pour box to confirm that all molds were poured
B4.6 Batch Pour System
within specified temperature range.
Charging raw materials or scrap into the auto pouring holders or ladles and running production out
B4.7 Metal Quality
of them at the same time is prohibited.
Alloying into the spinner holding furnaces or ladles is allowed, but must be minimized in order to
B4.8 Alloying
prevent defects such as inclusions.
Equipment computer programs or mechanical limits for pouring and cycle times must be protected
B4.9 Machine Settings from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change the program or
settings.
Spinners should have real time closed loop monitoring which is either tied into the extractor/robot
B4.10 Control Limits control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control limits. Tubes that are outside
the control limits must be segregated for additional inspections.
5.0 Spinners
B5.1 Process Centrifugal casting is to be used to produce the raw tubes.
B5.2 Pre-Heat Automated spinner cells must have a mold preheat station.
B5.3 Process Spinners may be manual or automatic.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
An automated reciprocator must be used to clean the inside diameter of the mold before each
B5.4 Cleaning
cycle.
An automated reciprocator must be used to apply the coating spray.

B5.5 Coating Nozzle arrangement must assure uniform coating application. Appropriate maintenance required
to keep the nozzles open.
B5.6 Coating The coating spray volume must be measured and controlled.
B5.7 Coating The coating spray Baume (viscosity) must be measured and controlled.
B5.8 Coating The coating spray tank must have continuous agitation.
The temperature of the coating in the spray tank must be measured and controlled. Preferably
B5.9 Coating
below 45C
The mold coating spray should be applied with PLC control. PLC alarms when parameters such as
B5.10 Coating
volume, pressure, time, temperature are out of range.
B5.11 Coating The coating thickness inside the molds must be audited and controlled.
B5.12 Cooling The water cooling cycle must be PLC controlled.
B5.13 RPMs The spinner RPMs must be PLC controlled. There must be an alarm if out of range.
6.0 Pouring
If manual ladle or auto ladle pouring, the ladles must have a teapot spout construction in order to
B6.1 Ladle Construction
hold slag back.
B6.2 Ladle Pre-Heat If manual ladle or auto ladle pouring, the ladles must be on heat when not in use.
B6.3 Inoculation All metal must be post-inoculated.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
Post-inoculation based on weight is preferred. If the post-inoculation addition is based on volume
B6.4 Inoculation
or timers, there must be a regular audit to verify the weight.
B6.5 De-Slagging The ladles must be slagged off before every pour.
B6.6 Pour Weight The pour weight must be measured and controlled.
B6.7 Temperature The temperature of all molds must be checked at the pour station right before pouring.
If the temperature of the mold is too cold, an alarm must sound and the tube must be scrapped.
B6.8 Temperature
Tubes from cold molds must be identified and scrapped after extraction.
For ductile iron, there must be a maximum time limit from nodularization treatment to last mold
B6.9 Fade Time poured. There must be a timer alarm which is clearly visible or audible located where it is obvious
to the workers at the cast line.
The tubes being cast must have traceability to each ladle / heat of metal poured. The location for
B6.10 Tube Traceability the first tube and last tube per ladle / heat must be easily identifiable. For ductile iron, this is
critical in case of suspect low nodularity scrap.
1. The last iron poured from a ladle / heat must be nodularity checked without delay.
2. These nodularity checks at the cast line must be from a microstructure inspection; they must not
be based on any ultrasonic correlation with a sample specimen. The AFS standard coupon is
preferred.
Nodularity Control
B6.11 3. The cast line must be built such that suspect low nodularity scrap tubes can be reliably
for ductile iron
separated from the rest of production. Any suspect tubes must be isolated for further testing and
evaluation.
4. The intent of the nodularity controls is that suspect bad iron tubes are never mixed with good
iron tubes.
7.0 Extraction
After extraction, all tubes must be individually marked for traceability to each ladle / heat of metal
B7.1 Traceability
poured. For ductile iron, this is critical in case of suspect low nodularity scrap.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
The spinner cell must be built such that scrap tubes can easily be removed from the cell right after
B7.2 Scrap
extraction. For ductile iron, this is critical in case of suspect low nodularity scrap.
B7.3 Dimensional There must be control limits for the raw tube inside diameter and outside diameter.
B7.4 Dimensional There must be an audit to section raw tubes for wall thickness checks.
8.0 Processing and Inspections
B8.1 Shot Blast Shot blasting must be in-house.
Magnetic Particle Inspection must be available on site. The early production ramp up may require
B8.2 Crack Inspection
100% magnetic particle inspection.
B8.3 Crack Inspection Dye penetrant inspection must be available on site.
B8.4 Crack Inspection Ultrasonic inspection must be available on site.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
For piston rings, the volatiles content of rings being shipped must be audited, measured, and
B8.5 Cleanliness
controlled.
Unless otherwise noted on part print, all pallet boxes or containers must have customer part
number and have traceability information on a sticker attached to the container. The traceability
label must contain a code which when provided to the supplier will allow the supplier to provide
the following information:
1. Date of casting
B8.6 Traceability 2. Spinner number
3. Chemical composition
4. Operator number
5. Casting machine number
6. Casting lot number
7. Machining equipment used
8. Machining operator number
1. Unless expressly Approved by customer Product Engineering, no repairs are allowed. This
includes, but is not limited to: impregnation, welding, epoxy repair, heat treating.
B8.7 Repairs
2. If repairs are allowed by Customer Product Engineering, procedures need to be completed and
approved by Product Engineering before repairs can be used.
1. As a minimum, the casting plant shall have a programmable Coordinate Measuring Machine
(CMM) on site. The CMM must be run in an automatic mode. Where possible, the application of
point cloud/laser scanning inspection technology is preferred. When used in combination with
point cloud scanning technology, the CMM is considered the “gage of record” for dimensional
B8.8 measurements because of precision associated with the points measured.
Part One
2. The casting plant shall maintain a CMM hit point map/drawing showing all CMM hit points that
are agreed upon between the casting plant and the customer. (Point Cloud Inspection/laser
scanning can be used in place of CMM inspection if agreed upon with customer Product
Engineering).

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
3. The CMM program must include checking the flatness of each individual raw casting datum
surface if the datum pad is intended to be a flat surface. Preferably less than 0.250mm.
4. Point cloud/laser scanning inspection must use the part-design datum construction to align the
measurement data. Unless otherwise specified by the customer, "best-fit" data alignment is not
allowed.
5. The casting plant is responsible for comparing the scan with the 3D Math Model. In all cases the
Point Cloud/laser scan must be aligned to the math model using the X-Y-Z raw casting datum
B8.9 surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering and the responsible APQP
Part Two
Quality Engineer.
6. Scan reports must include a screen shot showing which surface features were used to align the
scan to the 3D Math Model; and what is the distance, D, of those scanned surface features to each
of the same features in the 3D Math Model. The scan report must clearly state which version of
the 3D Math Model was used.
7. Point Cloud/laser scanning Inspection is recommended for prototype parts and PPAP parts as
defined by the customer specific requirements. The scanning may be out-sourced.
For piston rings, rings must be stabilized at 21°C, +/- 1° for CMM dimensional inspection
B8.10 Dimensional
purposes.
There must be regular audits to section raw castings for wall thickness verification; including any
B8.11 Wall Thickness high stress features in the FEA. If the supplier is responsible for any machining, there must be
regular audits to section machined castings for wall thickness verification.
For ductile iron, the supplier is responsible for the correlation of Ultrasonic Velocity or Resonant
B8.12 Nodularity Verification Frequency Testing to %nodularity to define limits for acceptance at the test location for each part
number. Customer may require 100% ultrasonic checking for some applications.
1. The supplier must be capable of conducting internal Integrity inspection using non-destructive
testing method (x-ray) or destructive testing (sectioning) per customer requirements; including any
B8.13 Internal Integrity high stress features in the FEA.
2. The supplier shall have X-ray capability available. X-ray does not have to be on-site. However,
the location and access to it must be reasonable for development purposes.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
chemistries, hardness, microstructure, % nodularity, area fraction porosity, and any other features
specified by customer Product Engineering.
B9.1 Laboratory Location
2. The supplier shall have Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) capability available. The SEM
does not have to be on-site. However, the location and access to it must be reasonable for defect
analyses.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
2. Mechanical properties testing must be on site unless customer Product Engineering approves
another location.
3. Mechanical property testing must include ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and percent
B9.2 Material Property Testing elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to the specimen
unless customer Product Engineering agrees to some other method.
4. If retest or replacement is necessary must be with agreement of the customer Product
Engineering.
The casting source must prepare test bars from a location approved by customer Product
Engineering. For example, these might be cut from a tube or from a separately cast bar.
B9.3 Mechanical Property
Mechanical properties are often required from test bars cut from tubes in an area designated on
the engineering drawing or in the part quality document.
Metallurgical examination is to be done by the supplier prior to any testing to insure microstructure
meets engineering drawing specification.
1. A metallograph image analyzer is required on-site unless customer Product Engineering
approves some other method of measuring features in the images.
B9.4 Microstructure Analysis 2. For piston rings, the designated location for microstructure audits is the Outside Diameter
wearing surface.
3. Reference photographs must be readily available at the metallograph for all microstructure
requirements.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. Hardness testing is to be done on-site per ASTM E10/ISO 6506. Supplier must have certified
Master blocks on-site for auditing the calibration of the hardness tester.
4. The customer specified hardness range must be reduced by the tolerance allowed on the
hardness Master block.
B9.5 Hardness Testing
5. Unless Product Engineering specifies otherwise, Brinell hardness test raw tubes using a
7.If hardness readings are out of specification, all tubes in the Lot shall be hardness tested with
any out-of-specification tubes rejected.
8. Machined parts to be hardness tested per customer Product Engineering requirements.
1. Heat treating must be before machining unless customer Product Engineering agrees to heat
treat after machining. Heat treating may be in-house or outsourced. Heat treating must be in
compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System Assessment (HTSA), published by
B9.6 Heat Treatment
AIAG.
2. Austempered Ductile Iron often has some pre-machining before heat treatment. Features to be
pre-machined must be approved by customer Product Engineering.
The supplier is responsible for any residual stress testing requirements unless Customer Product
B9.7 Residual Stress Testing Engineering agrees that the supplier is not responsible for it. Testing may be outsourced.
Customer Product Engineering must approve the source which conducts the testing.
The supplier is responsible for any fatigue testing requirements unless Customer Product
B9.8 Fatigue Testing Engineering agrees that the supplier is not responsible for it. Testing may be outsourced.
Customer Product Engineering must approve the source which conducts the testing.
10.0 Leak Testing

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. Some castings may require leak testing. Leak rate specification must be defined on the
customer Product Engineering document.
2. Acceptable methods for leak testing are: air under water, sniffers, pressure decay, mass flow.
3. Pressure decay / mass flow cannot measure Zero leakage. Zero leakage applications must
B10.1 Leak Test Requirement use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification.
5. Pressure decay / mass flow cannot pass Gage R&R at very low leak rate specifications. These
very low leak rate applications must also use air under water or sniffers.
1. Castings must be thoroughly dried before going into pressure decay / mass flow. An in-line
drier is preferred.
2. Casting cavities must be leak tested separately in order to assure there are no cross channel
leaks.
3. Pressure decay / mass flow controllers must have automatic temperature measurement and
adjustment.
4. Leak Masters must have leak rates within +/- 10% of the maximum permissible leak rate of the
part.
5. A Zero Leak Master is required for pressure decay / mass flow. A Zero Leak Master is an
B10.2 Leak Test Process
Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
6. Each day that the pressure decay / mass flow is used, the measured leak rate for the Zero
Leak Master and for the Max Leak Master must be recorded and plotted.
7. Customer maximum leak rate limits must be reduced by the observed Bias and Variation of the
measurement system (such as the +/- variation of the Zero Leak Master).
8. A certified orifice may be used as the Leak Master and/or as the Zero Leak Master if customer
Product Engineering approves.
9. Pressure decay / mass flow test equipment must automatically stamp good parts while the part
is still in the test fixture.

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frequencies.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
1 The supplier shall have water dunk capability on site for determining the location of leaks on
castings as shipped to the customer AND for fully machined castings returned from the customer.
2. Water dunk must use water temperature at least 20C.
B10.3 Water Dunk Capability
3. 100% water dunk, zero bubbles, is common for components with a Zero Leak requirement.
Typical water dunk parameters are 5 bar air pressure, minimum 15 seconds without a bubble. Air
pressure and minimum time must be approved by customer Product Engineering.
1. Impregnation is not allowed unless expressly approved by customer Product Engineering.

Approval must be documented per Customer specific policy, such as on the part print.
2. Customer Product Engineering must approve the sealant.
B10.4 Impregnation 3. Customer Product Engineering must approve the impregnation source which would perform
the impregnation.
4. Impregnation must be in full compliance with any customer specific Statement Of Requirements
for Impregnation of Castings.
1. Some castings may require flow testing. Flow rate specification must be defined on the
customer Product Engineering document.
B10.5 Flow Testing 2. Flow testing must use automated air flow equipment. Using round balls or probes is not
acceptable unless approved by customer Product Engineering.
3. Flow test equipment must automatically stamp good parts while the part is still in the test fixture.
B10.6 Error-Proofing
2. Scheduling production of similar looking part numbers on different production shifts is not error-
proofing.

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PROCESS TABLE C - Centrifugal Liners

When performing the CQI-27 Casting Assessment the auditor shall verify foundry is conforming to customer requirements; including a customer approved Control Plan defining the agreed upon inspection
testing and frequencies. *If minimum requirements are not met, provide supporting records to justify actual conditions.
Conforming /
Not Applicable
This Process Table is for grey iron Centrifugal Cast Cylinder Liners used in Cylinder
Blocks for automotive applications. The liners may be pressed-in-place (PIP) or cast-in-
Casting Process
place (CIP). Variations of centrifugal casting are used to produce most automotive iron
cylinder liners. It ranges from highly automated cells to labor intensive process flows.

C1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
C1.2

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
C1.3
Engineering.
1. The casting plant should use solidification modeling software such as MagmaSoft,
AnyCasting, ProCast, EKK, FLOW-3D or similar software approved by customer on the
C1.4 Casting Simulation
tube prior to tooling construction and prototype part submission.
The surfaces to be used as datums for dimensional purposes must be reviewed and
C1.5 Casting Datum
approved by customer Product Engineering.
1. All production molds must be made from steel alloys unless customer Product
Engineering approves alternate material.
C1.6 Tube Mold Material tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
1. The life of the molds is tracked based on number of cycles.
frequencies.
C1.7 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.

C1.8 Tool Changes
volumes.
1. All liners produced must be identified with customer branding requirements, casting
plant logo (as applicable), casting part number, and cast date in designated locations
per customer requirements.
C1.9 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
specification and/or part drawing.) 2. All
features on fixtures and gages which measure a dimensional aspect of the part must be
built within +/- 5-micron accuracy. This is the dimensional accuracy of the fixture and
gage; not the dimensional accuracy of the part. Customer approval is required for any
other accuracy such as 10% or less of part working tolerance.
C1.10 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
2.0 Metal Control
Incoming/Returned Material Raw /Returned materials must be stored without mixing them in marked storage bins by
C2.1
Storage type.

C2.2 Individual charge materials going into melting furnaces must be weighed first.
Additions
pouring).
calibration.
measurement method.
C2.3 Metal Chemistry documented. The spectrometer carbon must crosscheck within +/- 0.05 of the value
Calibration Master.
8. Titanium should be controlled below 0.015%.
For any mandatory elements, control limits must be reduced by the tolerance allowed
C2.4 Chemistry
on the Master Calibration Standards.

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
A Thermal Arrest unit, also known as a CE Meter, must be used on the melt deck for in-
C2.5 Chemistry
process checks unless customer Product Engineering approves that it is not required.
C2.6 Metal Temperature
1. All metal must be post-inoculated. This could be in the ladle, in-stream, or in the
mold.
C2.7 Inoculation
C2.8 Carbon Raiser
3.0 Metal Control
The centrifugal casting machines are commonly called spinners. Metal at the spinners
C3.1 Equipment
may be in a ladle or in a holder.
C3.2 Start-Up Process
transfer ladles.
C3.3 Metal Transfer it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
C3.4 Auto Pouring
Engineering approves manual pouring. Manual pouring into a tilt pour basin is allowed;
C3.5 Metal Pouring
the tilting action must be automated.
C3.6 Batch Pour System
C3.7 Metal Quality
Alloying into the spinner holding furnaces or ladles is allowed, but must be minimized in
C3.8 Alloying
The tubes must have traceability to each ladle / heat of metal poured. The location for
C3.9 Tube Traceability
the first tube and last tube per ladle / heat must be easily identifiable.
C3.10 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change
Spinners should have real time closed loop monitoring which is either tied into the
extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
C3.11 Control Limits
limits. Tubes that are outside the control limits must be segregated for additional
inspections.

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4.0 Spinners
C4.1 Process Centrifugal casting is to be used to produce the raw tubes.
C4.2 Pre-Heat Automated spinner cells must have a mold preheat station.
C4.3 Process Spinners may be manual or automatic.
An automated reciprocator must be used to clean the inside diameter of the mold before
C4.4 Cleaning
each cycle.
An automated reciprocator must be used to apply the coating spray.

C4.5 Coating Nozzle arrangement must assure uniform coating application. Appropriate maintenance
required to keep the nozzles open.
C4.6 Coating The coating spray volume must be measured and controlled.
C4.7 Coating The coating spray Baume (viscosity) must be measured and controlled.
C4.8 Coating The coating spray tank must have continuous agitation.
The temperature of the coating in the spray tank must be measured and controlled.
C4.9 Coating
Preferably below 45C.
The mold coating spray should be applied with PLC control. PLC alarms when
C4.10 Coating
parameters such as volume, pressure, time, temperature are out of range.
C4.11 Coating The coating thickness inside the molds must be audited and controlled.
C4.12 Cooling The water cooling cycle must be PLC controlled.
C4.13 RPMs The spinner RPMs must be PLC controlled. There must be an alarm if out of range.
5.0 Pouring
C5.1 Ladle Construction
C5.2 Ladle Pre-Heat If manual ladle or auto ladle pouring, the ladles must be on heat when not in use.
C5.3 Inoculation All metal must be post-inoculated.

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Post-inoculation based on weight is preferred. If the post-inoculation addition is based
C5.4 Inoculation
on volume or timers, there must be a regular audit to verify the weight.
C5.5 De-Slagging The ladles must be slagged off before every pour.
C5.6 Pour Weight The pour weight must be measured and controlled.
C5.7 Temperature The temperature of all molds must be checked at the pour station right before pouring.
If the temperature of the mold is too cold, an alarm must sound and the tube must be
C5.8 Temperature
scrapped. Tubes from cold molds must be identified and scrapped after extraction.
6.0 Extraction
C6.1 Traceability After extraction, all tubes must be individually marked for traceability.
The spinner cell must be built such that scrap tubes can easily be removed from the cell
C6.2 Scrap
right after extraction.
C6.3 Dimensional There must be control limits for the raw tube inside diameter and outside diameter.
C6.4 Dimensional There must be an audit to section raw tubes for wall thickness checks.
7.0 Processing and Inspections
C7.1 Shot Blast Shot blasting must be in-house.
C7.2 Shot Blast Pressed-in-place liners can only be shot blasted before machining.
Shot blast cleaning on machined cast-in-place liners is acceptable. Surface finish after
C7.3 Shot Blast
shot blast must be measured and controlled.
Liners must be 100% eddy current tested at least on the inside diameter and the outside
C7.4 Crack Inspection diameter for cracks, blows and inclusions. Other inspection methods (such as leak test)
require Product Engineering approval.

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Eddy current checked inspection must include both the inside diameter and the outside
C7.5 Crack Inspection
diameter.
C7.6 Crack Inspection Eddy current check the entire length of the liner, including the flange and chamfers.
Masters for the eddy current must include both horizontal and vertical surface cracks.
For creating masters, these cracks may be micro-machined.
C7.8 Crack Inspection The process flow must separate eddy current rejects away from liners to be packed.
Eddy current rejects must be accumulated and re-run as a controlled batch. Two times
rejects are scrap.
C7.10 Crack Inspection The crack detection must be the last step before packaging.
Magnetic Particle Inspection must be available on site. The early production ramp up
may require 100% magnetic particle inspection.
C7.12 Crack Inspection Dye penetrant inspection must be available on site.
C7.13 Crack Inspection Ultrasonic inspection must be available on site.

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Not Applicable
The volatiles content of liners being shipped must be audited, measured, and
C7.14 Cleanliness
controlled.
C7.15 Traceability Pressed in place liners may be required to be ink jet marked for traceability.
Unless otherwise noted on part print, all pallet boxes or containers of liners must have
customer part number and have traceability information on a sticker attached to the
container. The traceability label must contain a code which when provided to the liner
supplier will allow the liner supplier to provide the following information:
1. Date of casting
C7.16 Traceability 2. Spinner number
3. Chemical composition
4. Operator number
5. Casting machine number
6. Casting lot number
7. Machining equipment used
8. Machining operator number
1. Unless expressly Approved by customer Product Engineering, no repairs are

allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: impregnation, welding, epoxy repair, heat
C7.17 Repairs treating.
2. If repairs are allowed by Customer Product Engineering, procedures need to be
completed and approved by Product Engineering before repairs can be used.

Dimensional Inspection - “gage of record” for dimensional measurements because of precision associated with
C7.18
Part One the points measured.
2. The casting plant shall maintain a CMM hit point map/drawing showing all CMM hit
points that are agreed upon between the casting plant and the customer. (Point Cloud

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
0.250mm.
C7.19 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
sourced.
C7.20 Dimensional Liners must be stabilized at 21°C, +/- 1° for CMM dimensional inspection purposes.
If the supplier is responsible for any machining, there must be regular audits to section
C7.21 Wall Thickness
machined castings for wall thickness verification.
C7.22 Internal Integrity requirements; including any high stress features in the FEA.

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Not Applicable
chemistries, hardness, microstructure, area fraction porosity, and any other features
specified by customer Product Engineering. 2.The supplier
C8.1 Laboratory Location
shall have Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) capability available. The SEM does
not have to be on-site. However, the location and access to it must be reasonable for
defect analyses.

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Conforming /
Not Applicable

C8.2 Material Property Testing percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
Product Engineering. For example, these might be cut from a liner or from a separately
C8.3 Mechanical Property cast bar. Mechanical properties are often required from test bars cut from tubes in an
area designated on the engineering drawing or in the part quality document. The test
bar location in the liner will be dimensioned from liner features.

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Not Applicable
Metallurgical examination is to be done by the supplier prior to any testing to insure

microstructure meets engineering drawing specification.
Engineering approves some other method of measuring features in the images.
2. For spiny liners, the supplier must have capability to measure spine height, spine
shape, and spine density (number per square cm).
4. The designated location for microstructure audits is the honed ID wearing surface
C8.4 Microstructure Analysis diameter.
5. Graphite Type and Size must be measured at the honed ID (wearing surface).
6. The D&E graphite percentage must be minimized.
7. There must be reference photographs for D & E graphite from the actual production.
8. Pearlite spacing must be measured at the honed ID.
9. Size and distribution of TiCN particles must be measured at the honed ID.
10. Eutectic cell size and count must be measured at the honed IN.
11. Carbides, steadite, ferrite must be measured at the honed ID.
12. MnS particle size and distribution must be measured at the honed ID
the hardness Master block.
C8.5 Hardness Testing 5. Unless Product Engineering specifies otherwise, Brinell hardness test raw tubes
using a 3000Kg load, 10 mm diameter indenter, and 10 - 15 second dwell time.
7.If hardness readings are out of specification, all tubes in the Lot shall be hardness
tested with any out-of-specification tubes rejected.
8. Machined liners to be hardness tested per customer Product Engineering
requirements.

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
Machinability of the liners during the cylinder block finish machining is a major concern.
During development, machinability testing by the supplier is mandatory unless customer
Product Engineering waives this requirement. Customer Product Engineering must
C8.6 Machinability Testing
approve the facility which will conduct the machinability study. There will be no orders
placed for volume production until machinability is deemed acceptable by customer
C8.7 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.

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PROCESS TABLE D - Investment Castings (Iron/Steel)

Conforming /
Not Applicable
This Process Table is for castings from processes commonly called investment casting,
Casting Process lost wax, or precision mold. It ranges from highly automated cells to labor intensive
process flows. A wide variety of cast irons and steel alloys.

D1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
D1.2

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Conforming /
Not Applicable
5. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load
Maximum Stress greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, then Limit
Testing at Extreme Load conditions is appropriate. The foundry may not be
responsible for this testing, however, the foundry is responsible to provide worst-
case parts for this testing. Customer Product Engineering will define the worst-case
conditions, such as internal porosity, for Limit Testing.
FEA Analysis - 6. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load
D1.3
Part Two Maximum Stress greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, Customer
Product Engineering may restrict shipment of castings for serial production only to
the extent of what was provided for Limit Testing. This may be tighter than stated
Product Engineering acceptance criteria if the worst-case parts provided were not at
the extremes of the permissible acceptance criteria. In other words, if it was not
Limit Tested, it cannot be shipped. This is a decision to be made by customer
D1.4 Casting Simulation

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Engineering.
D1.5 Casting Datum
surfaces (one of the causal factors related to thin-wall conditions).
4. Tooling design must allow all raw casting locators (datum surfaces) to be on one
piece of the tooling steel. This is for dimensional control purposes. Customer Product
Engineering approval is required for any deviation from this concept.
1. All production tooling must be made from steel alloys unless customer Product
Engineering approves alternate material.
D1.6 Wax Pattern Tooling tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts
1. The life cycle of the tooling is tracked based on number cycles.

frequencies.
D1.7 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion.

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Not Applicable
D1.8 Tool Changes
volumes.

D1.9 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process
specification and/or part drawing.).
2. All features on fixtures and gages which measure a dimensional aspect of the part
must be built within +/- 5-micron accuracy. This is the dimensional accuracy of the
fixture and gage; not the dimensional accuracy of the part. Customer approval is
required for any other accuracy such as 10% or less of part working tolerance.
D1.10 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.
2.0 Wax Injection

D2.1 Automatic Injection Wax injection shall be automated into molds.

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Not Applicable
D2.2 Wax Temperature The temperature of wax shall be automatically controlled.
D2.3 Wax Mold Temperature The temperature of the wax mold shall be automatically controlled by water cooling.
D2.4 Injection Pressure The wax injection pressure shall be controlled.

D2.5 Injection Time The wax injection time shall be controlled.
The properties of the wax such as viscosity and contraction ratio shall be measured and
D2.6 Wax Properties controlled. In some cases it may be necessary to confirm melt temperature, shrinkage
rate and ash residue on wax materials prior to use.
1.There shall be alarms if key parameters are out of range; to include wax temperature,
wax mold temperature, wax injection pressure, and wax injection time.
D2.7 Parameter Control
2. Error-proofing frequency to verify wax machine will stop if key parameters are out of
range.
D2.8 Parting Line Removal Wax parting line must be removed.
Dimensionally measure wax pattern on an audit basis at the start and finish of each shift
to ensure dimensional stability and capability. Recommended measurement system is a
D2.9 Dimensional Control
CMM. Recommended features for measurement are a sub-set of the important
characteristics from the final part design.
It is highly recommended the wax mold production area be temperature and humidity
D2.10 Temperature and Humidity Control
controlled in order to meet dimensional requirements.
3.0 Cluster Assembly
If multiple pieces are required to make the casting geometry, an assembly fixture must
D3.1 Assembly Fixture
be used.
D3.2 Assembly Gage Assemblies must be checked with gages to verify geometry and position.
Before being glued to the trees, wax patterns and assemblies must be trimmed and
D3.3 Trimming and Inspection
inspected.
D3.4 Filling Datum Location Surfaces The patterns shall not be trimmed on datum locating surfaces.

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Not Applicable
D3.5 Glue Temperature Glue temperatures must be measured and controlled. Alarm if out of control limits.
After the trees are assembled, the cluster must be degreased and inspected. Training
D3.6 Degreasing and Final Inspection matrix for the inspectors must be maintained to show the operator is qualified to the
applicable work instructions.
4.0 Cluster Coating (Shelling)

D4.1 Sand Layer The sand layers and types of sand must be validated during prototype trail runs.
The coating may be manual or automatic. Coating by robot is preferred. Coating

thickness of each layer must be audited. Automated systems must be verified for
D4.2 Coating Method
rotational speed or coating thickness. Manual systems must be verified for coating
thickness.
D4.3 Sand Sieve Analysis The sand sieve analysis must be available on-site.
The Baume (Density) and Viscosity of coating must be checked and recorded for each
D4.4 Coating Baume/Viscosity Check
coating tank.

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1. Coating tank must be continuously agitated.
D4.5 Coating Tank 2. Coating tank temperature must be controlled. Temperature should be recorded at the
time of viscosity check.
1. Coated trees must be stored in temperature and humidity controlled rooms with
Continuous measurement and recording of temperature and humidity.
2. Each coated tree must be visually inspected using a standardized work instruction as
D4.6 Coated Trees Storage a guideline.
3. All racks must be tagged to identify the time of each coating.
4. Coated trees must not be stacked touching each other. Adequate storage racks must
be provided to place trees in single layers.
D4.7 Shell Moisture The shell moisture must be removed by fans or similar method.
5.0 Wax Removal
D5.1 De-Waxing Temperature The temperature of de-waxing must be controlled. Alarm if out of control limits.
D5.2 De-Waxing Time The time for de-waxing must be controlled. Alarm if out of range.
D5.3 De-Waxing Pressure If applicable, the de-waxing pressure must be controlled. Alarm if out of range.
After de-waxing, the open basins must be covered to prevent contamination by foreign
D5.4 Covering Open Basin
debris.
Molds must be used within 48 hours of being de-waxed. Customer Approval Required if
D5.5 Molds Shell Life
control plan exceeds 48 hours.
Molds must not be stacked touching each other. Adequate storage racks must be
D5.6 Molds Storage
provided to place molds in single layers.
D5.7 Reclaim Percentage If wax is reclaimed, there must be a maximum control limit on reclaim percentage.
6.0 Prebake (Burnout)

D6.1 Prebake Temperature The temperature of prebake must be controlled. Alarm if out of range.
D6.2 Prebake Time The time of prebake must be controlled. Alarm if out of range.
7.0 Metal Control

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D7.1
Storage by type.

D7.2 Individual charge materials going into melting furnaces must be weighed first.
Additions
pouring).
calibration.
measurement method.
D7.3 Metal Chemistry documented. The spectrometer carbon must crosscheck within +/- 0.05 of the value
Calibration Master.
8. For ductile iron, there must be a minimum limit for sulfur. Preferably over 0.006%.
For any mandatory elements, control limits must be reduced by the tolerance allowed
D7.4 Chemistry
on the Master Calibration Standards.

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Not Applicable
A Thermal Arrest unit, also known as a CE Meter, must be used on the melt deck for in-
D7.5 Chemistry
process checks unless customer Product Engineering approves that it is not required.
D7.6 Metal Temperature

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1. All cast iron metal must be post-inoculated. This could be in the ladle, in-stream, or in
the mold.
D7.7 Inoculation
D7.8 Carbon Raiser
8.0 Pouring
D8.1 Start-Up Process
transfer ladles, alloy scales.
D8.2 Metal Transfer it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they
D8.3 Filter
D8.4 Auto Pouring

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D8.5 Metal Pouring Engineering approves manual pouring.
D8.6 Ladle Construction
D8.7 Batch Pour System
D8.8 Metal Quality
D8.9 Alloying
1. The molds must have traceability to each ladle / heat of metal poured. The location
for the first mold and last mold per ladle / heat must be easily identifiable.
D8.10 Mold Traceability 2. Cast lines with multiple cooling lines must track each mold from each ladle / heat of
D8.11 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change
Cast machine should have real time closed loop monitoring which is either tied into the
shakeout control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control limits.
D8.12 Control Limits
Castings that are outside the control limits must be segregated for additional
inspections.

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1. The last iron poured from a ladle / heat must be nodularity checked before the first
mold poured from that same ladle / heat reaches shakeout.
2. These nodularity checks at the cast line must be from a microstructure inspection;
they must not be based on any ultrasonic correlation with a sample specimen. The AFS
standard coupon is preferred.
D8.13 Nodularity Control 3. The cast line and shakeout must be built such that suspect low nodularity scrap can
be reliably separated from the rest of production. There should be a switch before the
shakeout where an operator can Stop/Start the cast line. Any suspect castings must be
isolated for further testing and evaluation.
4. The intent of the nodularity controls is that suspect bad iron is never mixed with good
iron.
The cast line must provide a long enough time to assure castings have cooled to a
black color at shakeout. If castings are above 727C at shake out, customer may require
residual stresses to be measured on a casting at the shortest shakeout time to assure
D8.14 Shakeout Time
cracking is not an issue. A metallographic examination may also be required to be
assessed as machinability may be a concern. Results of these measurements and
shakeout process must be reviewed and approved by customer Product Engineering.

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9.0 Casting Testing and Inspection
D9.1

D9.2

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0.250mm.
D9.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
sourced.
Cast tolerances apply to castings which have not been painted, plated, or coated. There
D9.4 Casting Tolerance should be Casting dimensional data/layouts for castings which have not been painted,
plated, or coated.
There must be regular audits to section raw castings for wall thickness verification;
D9.5 Wall Thickness
verification.
For ductile iron, the supplier is responsible for the correlation of Ultrasonic Velocity or
Resonant Frequency Testing to %nodularity to define limits for acceptance at the test
D9.6 Nodularity Verification
location for each part number. Customer may require 100% ultrasonic checking for
some applications.

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D9.7 Internal Integrity requirements; including any high stress features in the FEA.

D9.8 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
The supplier must be capable of conducting surface integrity testing using non-
D9.9 Surface Integrity (Crack Detection) destructive testing techniques (magnetic particle inspection, resonance testing, eddy
current) per customer requirements; including any high stress features in the FEA.

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D9.10 Repairs
used.
10 Material Properties
chemistries, hardness, microstructure, % nodularity, area fraction porosity, and any
other features specified by customer Product Engineering.
D10.1 Laboratory Location

D10.2 Material Property Testing percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
D10.3 Mechanical Property
features.

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D10.4 Microstructure Analysis Engineering approves some other method of measuring features in the images.
D10.5 Hardness Testing the hardness Master block.
5. Unless Product Engineering specifies otherwise, Brinell hardness test using a
1. Heat treating must be before machining unless customer Product Engineering

agrees to heat treat after machining. Heat treating may be in-house or outsourced. Heat
treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System
D10.6 Heat Treatment
2. Austempered Ductile Iron often has some pre-machining before heat treatment.
Features to be pre-machined must be approved by customer Product Engineering.
D10.7 Residual Stress Testing

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D10.8 Fatigue Testing
the testing.
11.0 Leak Testing
mass flow.
D11.1 Leak Test Requirement applications must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification.
sniffers.

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channel leaks.
rate of the part.
is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
D11.2 Leak Test Process
.
Master).
8. A certified orifice may be used as the Leak Master and/or as the Zero Leak Master if
from the customer.
D11.3 Water Dunk Capability

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the part print.
2. Customer Product Engineering must approve the sealant.
D11.4 Impregnation
D11.5 Flow Testing
test fixture.
D11.6 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.

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PROCESS TABLE E - Aluminum Semi-Permanent Mold Cylinder Heads

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The semi-permanent mold process is to be used to produce the raw castings. The semi-
E1.1 Casting Process permanent mold process may include different types of cast machine equipment such
as: gravity die casting, tilt pour, rotary, and low pressure die cast.
The low pressure process may not meet the Material requirements for many cylinder
E1.2 Casting Process heads. Product requirements such as DAS and internal porosity must be given serious
consideration before selecting low pressure.

E1.3 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
E1.4

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5. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load
Maximum Stress greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, then Limit
Testing at Extreme Load conditions is appropriate. The foundry may not be
responsible for this testing, however, the foundry is responsible to provide worst-
case parts for this testing. Customer Product Engineering will define the worst-case
conditions, such as internal porosity, for Limit Testing.
FEA Analysis - 6. If there are any features on the casting which would have an Extreme Load
E1.5
Part Two Maximum Stress greater than 75% of the Yield Strength of the alloy, Customer
Product Engineering may restrict shipment of castings for serial production only to
the extent of what was provided for Limit Testing. This may be tighter than stated
Product Engineering acceptance criteria if the worst-case parts provided were not at
the extremes of the permissible acceptance criteria. In other words, if it was not
Limit Tested, it cannot be shipped. This is a decision to be made by customer
E1.6 Casting Simulation
Single cavity dies are required. If the casting plant predicts a multi-cavity die will work,
E1.7 Single Cavity the proposal must be approved by customer Product Engineering. Casting simulations
must support that multi-cavity would be same quality, or better, than single cavity.

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Engineering.
E1.8 Casting Datum
E1.9 Casting Tool Material tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts
E1.10 Core Box Design
E1.11 Core Box Vents
Screen vents in casting cavity surfaces are not allowed unless approved by customer

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1. Vents or Risers should be located where simulations show the last places to fill.
2. All molds should be vented to atmosphere unless the application includes vacuum or
E1.12 Mold Vents counter pressure.
3. Only slotted vents are to be used in the molds unless other types approved by
Molds must be built with venturi aspirator systems in order to minimize core gas related
E1.13 Design Feature problems unless customer Product Engineering approves alternative construction.
Molds can be aspirated out the bottom, ends, or sides.
E1.14 Design Feature Molds must be built with anti-float features to keep the cores in position during pouring.
The design of the intake ports must have “flats” positioned such that intake port depth
E1.15 Design Feature can be measured. If this feature is not on the Drawings / 3D Math Model, notify the
Molds must be built with the combustion chamber deckface down in cast position,
E1.16 Design Feature
unless customer Product Engineering approves alternative orientation.
Molds must be built with separate cooling lines for each combustion chamber unless
customer Product Engineering approves alternative construction.
Molds must be built with individual combustion chamber inserts which can be shimmed
unless customer Product Engineering approves alternative construction.
Molds must be built with side slides which can be shimmed in all directions. The intent
of this requirement is a “two piece” construction of the slides. The die steel forming
casting dimensions must be adjustable without affecting the position of the slide holding
block unless customer Product Engineering approves alternative construction.
The mold should have internal circuit connections to air and/or water lines with
Internal Mold Cooling Circuit regulated temperature and flow rates. The mold must be design with sufficient internal
E1.20
Design cooling circuits. These circuits must be confirmed with simulation software, and
approved by the customer.

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1. Check-sheet verification to account for potential issues outside of the standard
Preventative Maintenance scope of work.
2. Internal mold water lines must be checked for water flow rate when the mold is new
Mold Inspection
E1.21 and during maintenance unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement.
(Such as End of Run Inspection)
A qualitative inspection for flow is unacceptable. A quantitative measure of the flow rate
is required. The intent is to maintain the tooling with the flow rate used in the design
simulations.
1. Molds must be recoated at a fixed frequency for preventative maintenance.

E1.22 Mold Preparation
2. Gages to check coating thickness are required.
1. Confirmation of de-calcification of the water flow lines.

2. Water and air line plumbing flow checks.
Pre- Release Checklist Elements 3. Thermocouple function check.
E1.23
Tool Room Specific 4. Ejector pin function check.
5. Steel Core and slide condition.
6. Other Items ( Hydraulic Connections, Air line Connections, Limit Switches).

frequencies.
E1.24 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.

E1.25 Tool Changes
volumes.

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E1.26 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process
E1.27 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.
Cores
2.0
1. There must be an on-site sand lab equipped for checking core sand.
2. The sand lab must be capable of making audits for common parameters such as
E2.1 Sand Lab Sieve analysis, loss on ignition (LOI), core strength tests, compactability, moisture, %
volatiles, methylene blue test for active clay, compression, permeability.
E2.2 Outsourced Cores

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surfaces.
E2.3 Cold Box humidity unless customer Product Engineering approves higher limits. Special rooms
requirement. 4. Cold
box mix recipe should be verified by measured weight of resins.
pressure below -40º C. 2. Hot box core
boxes must have internal thermocouples. The temperatures must be displayed. There
must be an alarm if the temperature is out of range. Automatic temperature adjustment
is required unless customer Product Engineering approves another adjustment method.
E2.4 Hot Box
requirement. 4. Hot
box mix recipe should be verified by measured weight of resins.
E2.5 Shell Core
E2.6 Core Repair

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E2.7 Cured Core Check
E2.8 Core Coating methylated spirits, or any other liquid. This includes flammable coatings; burning them
is not sufficient.
E2.9 Core Coating The use of graphite coatings is discouraged. They are a common cause of inclusions.
E2.10 Chaplet/Spacer Any chaplets, spacers, or chills used must be completely clean and dry.
Filing on cores at the cast machines is not allowed.

E2.11 Core Preparation Cores and core assemblies must be thoroughly blown off from all sides before they are
set into molds.
assemblies.
E2.12 Core Assembly
E2.13 Core Storage

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E2.14 Core Inventory as a regular practice.
placing in molds.
3.0 Cast Machines
1. A start up checklist must be used to confirm that all water and air lines are hooked up
as designed.
E3.1 Startup Procedure
2. Error proofed or color coded lines are required.
3. A checklist must be confirmed for every setup.
1. Startup sequence must account for cycles used to warm up the mold.
2. Auto scrap or manual method is used to segregate warm up parts as scrap.
3. Cycle time must be measured for each casting cycle to account for cycle
interruptions, should they occur.
4. Auto scrap or manual method is used to separate parts after restarting from
E3.2 Startup and Downtime Recovery
interrupted cycles. 5.
The foundry must correlate the number of start-up cycles with the finish machined /
thoroughly inspected part quality. The number of parts to scrap is not based on the first
good part, it is based on the last bad part. There can be some overlap of good and bad
as the die heats up. Must assure that none of the bad parts are shipped.

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Unless customer Product Engineering approves an alternative concept for die

temperature control, the die temperature must be controlled with thermocouples as
described in this section. 1.
Thermocouples in the molds are required. There must be a thermocouple in every
combustion chamber. The temperature must be continuously displayed. There must be
an alarm to indicate when the temperature is out of range. Automatic temperature
E3.3 Die Temperature
adjustment is required. 2.
The thermocouples in the combustion chambers must target the same temperature as
the Solidification simulation model. 3. Flow meters
are required on all mold water / air lines. The PLC must turn the cooling water / air On
and Off based on the thermocouple temperatures. Maintain the combustion chamber
temperatures within +/- 50C of the setpoint; preferably within +/- 25C.
Masks must be designed to protect areas from coating buildup. Masks for covering the
E3.4 Mold Coating
combustion chambers are required.
E3.5 Mold Cleanliness Molds must be blown out each cycle before the slides close.
1. Each part may be cooled with water or air.

2. Extraction tools should be designed to clamp on the gating or risers without touching
the final casting product.
E3.6 Extraction Tools
3. Automatic extraction is preferred.
4. Automatic extractors should be programmed to scrap castings when parameters,
such as mold temperature, are out of range.
4.0 Metal Control
E4.1
Storage by type.
Primary metal may be required for some applications based on customer specific
E4.2 Source of Material
requirements.

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pouring).
2. It is required to use ASTM E716 disk book molds (or approved equivalent) for
chemistry samples.
calibration.
Calibration Master.
E4.3 Metal Chemistry
permissible tolerance range of the Master Calibration Standards.
6. There must be control limits for all key elements of the material grade.
7. The Sludge Factor must be measured and controlled below 2.0, preferably below 1.8.
SF = %Fe + 2X %Mn + 3X %Cr. The Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), and Chromium (Cr)
specification limits for raw material suppliers must take into account the maximum
permissible Sludge Factor. Be aware that the temperature of holders should not be
turned down low when there is no production. The lower the temperature, the faster the
rate of Sludge formation.
8. The Iron:Manganese ratio must be calculated and controlled. The recommended
Iron:Manganese ratio target is 2:1.
E4.4 Chemistry
1. If Titanium Boron is added either in-stream or in the ladle by an automated system

there must be an audit to confirm that wire is being measured for correct length and
E4.5 Grain Refinement
confirmation that wire is being dissolved for each mold cycle.
2. It is required to use Titanium Boron for grain refinement unless Customer Product
Engineering approves not to use it.

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1. It is required to use Strontium for silicon modification unless Customer Product
E4.6 Silicon Modification Engineering approves not to use it. 2. A
common target is 150 ppm.
1. Unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement, all metal must be
rotary degassed (cleaned) at least once before casting.
2. Degassing in a central melter and autoladle transferring to cast machine holders is
unacceptable. These autoladle transfer processes will not be Approved.
3. Degassing must be in a transfer ladle or in a holder at the cast machine. The design
of the degassing unit must have a baffle plate.
4. The use of cast machines with integral melter/holders is strongly discouraged. It is
often difficult to meet requirements for metal cleanliness and degassing. A minimum
requirement is a baffled chamber with a rotary degassing unit running continuously.
E4.7 Degassing
5. After rotary degassing, a vacuum gas sample must be taken in order to determine the
specific gravity. Calculate specific gravity of sample using weight in air vs. weight in
water method. The specific gravity difference must be within 0.10 of the theoretical
maximum based on the chemistry of the alloy and a maximum of -27 inches of Mercury
vacuum pressure. For many alloys, the theoretical maximum is around 2.70.
6. Vacuum gas sample testing is required for each batch degassing cycle unless
customer Product Engineering approves other process controls. Vacuum gas sample
testing is preferred every two hours for continuous degassing units unless customer
Product Engineering approves other process controls.
E4.8 Metal Transfer it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they
must have heat.
The temperature of metal being delivered to a cast machine holding furnace must be
E4.9 Metal Transfer checked. The temperature of metal being delivered must be within internally specified
control limits such that the cast machine holding furnace stays in specification.

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1. Metal at the cast line may be in a ladle or in a holder.
2. If holders are used at the cast line, they must have heat.
3. If holders are used, the temperature output must be readable by the machine
operator. If the metal temperature in the holding furnace falls outside of the specified
Holding Metal Treatment and range, an alarm must be established to indicate an out of tolerance condition.
E4.10
Temperature Control 4. Holding furnaces at the cast machines must be capable of controlling metal
temperature at the metal extraction point to within +/- 5°C, unless the customer agrees
to a wider range.
5. Alloying into the cast machine holding furnaces or ladles is allowed, but must be
minimized in order to prevent defects such as inclusions.

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5.0 Pouring
E5.1 Filters
1. If auto pouring holders are used, they must have heat. 2.

E5.2 Auto Pouring Auto pouring holders must be capable of controlling metal temperature at the metal
E5.3 Metal Pouring the tilting action must be automated.
2. Dip wells should be covered when the holding furnace is not in use.
3. Metal ladles must be on heat at their home position.
E5.4 Batch Pour System
E5.5 Metal Quality
E5.6 Alloying
Ladles must be free of skull (aluminum oxide film) before entering the dip well. Visual
E5.7 Ladle Cleanliness
inspection criteria should be defined and posted in the work area.
Auto pour ladle design must have a dam (hole in the back) to hold back the dross. Back
E5.8 Ladle Design tilt the ladle such that the ladle fills through the hole submerged beneath the surface of
the metal.
When pressure pour dosing furnaces are used, an inert gas or dry air may be used to
E5.9 Dosing Furnace pressurize the chamber. If air is used, the dew point must be less than -40º C,
preferably below -80º C.

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Launders from dosing furnaces must be designed and maintained such that metal does
E5.10 Launders
not buildup in them.
1. Unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement, there must be a low
frequency audit to measure the oxide content of the metal going into the molds using
Porous Disk Filter Analysis (PoDFA). PoDFA can be outsourced. Future metal
E5.11 Oxide Control
cleanliness requirements may be based on PoDFA. Audit frequency to be agreed upon
with customer Product Engineering.
2. Dip wells must be frequently skimmed to minimize the dross accumulation.
E5.12 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change
Cast machine must have real time closed loop monitoring which is either tied into the
E5.13 Control Limits extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
limits. Castings that are outside the control limits must be marked and later scraped.
6.0 Low Pressure Casting Process
1. Machine must have real time monitoring capability for chamber pressure, metal
position in tube, cavity fill time, mold temperature, metal temperature, and cycle time.
2. When applicable, flow monitoring transducers should be in place for cooling lines.
E6.1 Process Profile Monitoring
3. Cast machine should have real time closed loop monitoring which is either tied into
the extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
limits.
Unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement, filters must be used in
the fill tubes. 1. A
coarse filter must be used in the top of the fill tube.
E6.2 Fill Tube Best Practices 2. A fine filter must be used in the bottom of the fill tube.
3. All fill tubes must be made of solid ceramic material. Cast iron fill tubes are not
allowed. If the holding furnace is stationary, the bottom end of the fill tube should be
inside a fine filter chamber submerged in the molten metal.

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Inert gases are preferred. If dry air is used the dew point must be less than -40º C,
E6.3 Low Pressure Cover Gas
E6.4 Metal Quality Chemistry and density samples must be taken from the low pressure holding furnace.
1. If the holding furnace is stationary, pouring blocks with filters should be used when
E6.5 Metal Quality filling the holder. 2.
The holding furnace must be skimmed off after every fill of the furnace.
1. The software for the fill/pressure profile should have an infinite number of channels
E6.6 Process Control available for process options. 2.
Delta P less than 30 mbar during pressure rise is preferred.
7.0 Post Processing and Heat Treating
Impact or clamping on the final part geometry is not allowed during core removal.
E7.1 De-Coring
Vibration is preferred for de-coring (instead of hammering).
Riser removal should be done with an accurate cutting process such as CNC, robot, or
E7.2 Riser Removal
saw, which accurately locates the casting.
1. All parts must be cooled to a defined temperature prior to fixturing for riser removal
and trimming.
E7.3 Trimming
2. Trimming operations must allow the part to be properly fixtured to prevent damage.
Automated part handling systems are preferred.
Heat treating must be before machining and may be in-house or outsourced. Heat
E7.4 Heat Treatment treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System
1. Any liquid quench must have automatic temperature control and agitation. Equipment
must be capable to control quenching medium to within ± 5º C. 2. The
E7.5 Heat Treatment
quench medium must be at least 80C unless customer Product Engineering approves a
lower temperature limit.

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E7.6 Heat Treatment Cold water not to be introduced to the quench tank while parts are being quenched.
E7.7 Heat Treatment The delay from solution heat treat into a quenchant must not exceed 30 seconds.
Castings must be in a vertical orientation during heat treatment if they will be liquid
E7.8 Heat Treatment
quenched.
8.0 Inspection and Testing
E8.1

2. The casting plant shall maintain a CMM hit point map/drawing showing all CMM hit
E8.2 points that are agreed upon between the casting plant and the customer. (Point Cloud
Part One
customer Product Engineering). 3. The CMM
program must include checking the intake port depth. 4. The raw
casting datums must be included in all CMM hitpoint programs. The intent is to be able
to dimensionally check the casting at any stage of manufacture in order to know if the
raw casting was To Print. This expressly includes being able to check a finish
machined component to determine if the raw casting was To Print.

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0.250mm.
E8.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
and the responsible APQP Quality Engineer. 8. Scan reports
must include a screen shot showing which surface features were used to align the scan
to the 3D Math Model; and what is the distance, D, of those scanned surface features to
each of the same features in the 3D Math Model. The scan report must clearly state
which version of the 3D Math Model was used.
sourced.
1. A CMM program for the uncoated die must include checking the flatness of each
individual deckface raw casting datum surface. Flatness must be below 0.015 mm.
Check when the die is new; check every 10,000 cycles afterward.
2. A CMM program for the uncoated die must include checking the angle of each
individual deckface raw casting datum surface relative to the plane of the deckface.
E8.4 CMM Measurement Angle must be below 2 degrees. Check when the die is new; check every 10,000
cycles afterward.
3. A CMM program for the uncoated die must include checking the combustion chamber
depth and the chamber-to-chamber variation. Check when the die is new, check every
10,000 cycles afterwards. It is common for new dies to have chamber-to-chamber
variation below 0.01 mm.
Combustion chamber depth and chamber-to-chamber depth variation must be

E8.5 Combustion Chambers Depth
measured 100% unless customer Product Engineering approves a lower frequency.

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E8.6 Wall Thickness
verification.

E8.7 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
1. There must be on-site capability to regular audit with dye penetrant (color check) or
fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) entire casting or sections of castings specified by
Dye Penetrant Check and NaOH
E8.8 customer; including any high stress features in the FEA.
Etch Castings
2. There must be on-site capability to cut and NaOH etch castings for internal
inspections. (NaOH is sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda).
1. The supplier shall have a real time fluoroscopic/X-ray unit on-site.

2. There must be certified Masters at the X-ray capable of measuring the sensitivity and
resolution so that the system can be proven to meet customer requirements defined by
E8.9 X-ray
product design record.
3. X-ray audits must include any high stress features in the FEA.
4. For some applications, automated defect recognition may be required.
Unless customer Product Engineering approves higher porosity levels, (1) under no
circumstances can the internal porosity exceed ASTM E505 Level 2 using the 1/8”
series of reference photos regardless of actual section size; and (2) at any features of
E8.10 Internal Porosity
the casting which would have an FEA Extreme Load Maximum Stress greater than 50%
of the Yield Strength of the alloy the internal porosity must not exceed ASTM E505
Level 1 using the 1/8” series of reference photos regardless of actual section size.

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E8.11 Repairs
used.

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chemistries, hardness, microstructure, area fraction porosity, secondary dendritic arm
spacing (SDAS), silicon particle size, and any other features specified by customer
E9.1 Laboratory Location Product Engineering. 2. The supplier
shall have Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) capability available. The SEM does
not have to be on-site. However, the location and access to it must be reasonable for
defect analyses.

approves another location. 3. Mechanical
property testing must include ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and percent
E9.2 Material Property Testing elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to the
specimen unless customer Product Engineering agrees to some other method.
Product Engineering. 5.
Testing begins with prototypes and continues through regular production.
E9.3 Mechanical Property
features.

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Engineering approves some other method of measuring features in the images. The
E9.4 Microstructure Analysis image analyzer must be capable of measuring any Product Engineering requirements
such as Area Fraction porosity, secondary dendritic arm spacing (SDAS).
4. The customer specified range for hardness must be reduced by the tolerance allowed
E9.5 Hardness Testing on the hardness Master block.
5. Unless Product Engineering specifies otherwise, Brinell hardness test using a 500Kg
load, 10 mm diameter indenter, and 30 second dwell time.
E9.6 Residual Stress Testing may be outsourced. Customer Product Engineering must approve the source which
conducts the testing. Unless Product Engineering specifies otherwise, the residual
stress must not exceed 50 MPa.
E9.7 Fatigue Testing
the testing.

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10.0 Leak Testing
mass flow. 3.
Pressure decay / mass flow cannot measure Zero leakage. Zero leakage applications
E10.1 Leak Test Requirement
must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification. 5.
Pressure decay / mass flow cannot pass Gage R&R at very low leak rate specifications.
These very low leak rate applications must also use air under water or sniffers.
channel leaks.
rate of the part.
E10.2 Leak Test Process is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
Master). 8. A

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from the customer. 2.
Water dunk must use water temperature at least 20C. 3.
E10.3 Water Dunk Capability
100% water dunk, zero bubbles, is common for components with a Zero Leak

the part print. 2.
E10.4 Impregnation
perform the impregnation. 4.
Impregnation must be in full compliance with any customer specific Statement Of
E10.5 Flow Testing
test fixture.
E10.6 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.

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PROCESS TABLE F - Aluminum Sand Castings

Conforming /
Not Applicable
This Process Table is for aluminum castings used in automotive applications. There is a
Casting Process wide variety of molding processes including green sand, air set bonded sands, shell
molding, stacking molding, precision sand core packages.

F1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
F1.2

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F1.3
Engineering.
F1.4 Casting Simulation

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Engineering.
F1.5 Casting Datum
F1.6 Casting Tool Material tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts
F1.7 Core Box Design
F1.8 Core Box Vents

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frequencies.
F1.9 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.

F1.10 Tool Changes
volumes.

F1.11 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process

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F1.12 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.
Cores
2.0
F2.1 Outsourced Cores

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surfaces.
F2.2 Cold Box
blown.
F2.3 Hot Box
blown.
F2.4 Shell Core

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F2.5 Core Repair
F2.6 Cured Core Check
F2.7 Core Coating methylated spirits, or any other liquid. This includes flammable coatings; burning them
is not sufficient.
F2.8 Core Coating The use of graphite coatings is discouraged. They are a common cause of inclusions.
F2.9 Chaplet/Spacer Any chaplets, spacers, or chills used must be completely clean and dry.
Filing on cores at the cast machines is not allowed. Cores and core assemblies must be
F2.10 Core Preparation
thoroughly blown off from all sides before they are set into molds.
1. Cores must be thoroughly blown off from all sides before they are used to make core
assemblies.
F2.11 Core Assembly
6. For cylinder blocks, the cylinder bore core package must be set into the mold by a
fixture which locates off of the flask pins and bushings. Manual placement of the
cylinder bore cores is not allowed. The fixture can be moved to the mold line manually,
usually by operators and a hoist. An automated fixture is strongly preferred.

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F2.12 Core Storage
F2.13 Core Inventory as a regular practice.
placing in molds.
3.0 Metal Control
F3.1
Storage by type.
F3.2 Source of Material
requirements.

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pouring).
chemistry samples.
calibration.
F3.3 Metal Chemistry Calibration Master.
Hypereutectic Silicon Alloys such as 390 and ADC14 must meet the following
requirements unless customer Product Engineering approves other limits.
1. The silicon particle size in the castings must be below 50 microns.
F3.4 Hypereutectic Alloys
2. Phosphorus must be greater than 0.005
3. Iron must be less than 0.80
4. The depth of the surface Silicon Depletion zone must be measured and controlled.
F3.5 Chemistry

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The most frequent grain refinement additive is Titanium Boron.
F3.6 Grain Refinement there must be an audit to confirm that wire is being measured for correct length and
2. Grain refinement may be required by customer Product Engineering.
1. The most frequent silicon modification element is Strontium.

F3.7 Silicon Modification 2. Silicon modification may be required by customer Product Engineering.
3. A common target is 150 ppm.
F3.8 Degassing maximum based on the chemistry of the alloy and a maximum of -27 inches of Mercury
6. If a foundry can prove that metal with a specific gravity difference more than 0.10 of
the theoretical density will produce a good casting, a two step procedure is required.
Step One: Rotary degas the metal such that it is within 0.10 of theoretical density. Step
Two: Plunge a gasification material into the metal in order to achieve the desired
density. Gasification material must be approved by customer Product Engineering.
The first step is to get the metal “clean”. The second step adds back the gas
considered necessary to cast the part.

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F3.9 Metal Transfer it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they
must have heat.
F3.10 Metal Transfer checked. The temperature of metal being delivered must be within internally specified

range, an alarm must be established to indicate an out of tolerance condition.
Holding Metal Treatment and 4. Holding furnaces at the cast machines must be capable of controlling metal
F3.11
Temperature Control temperature at the metal extraction point to within +/- 5°C, unless the customer agrees
to a wider range.
6. Charging raw materials or scrap into the auto pouring holders or ladles and running
4.0 Cast In Place Insert
1. The customer Product Engineering must approve the source for cast in place inserts.
2. The insert source must implement Full Compliance with the applicable template
F4.1 Insert Source Process Table before PPAP. For example, a ductile iron bearing cap in a bedplate, the
casting source must implement Full Compliance with the Ductile Iron Casting Process
Table before PPAP.
1. Cast-in-place inserts must be pre-heated immediately prior to pouring metal into the
die.
F4.2 Insert Process Control 2. The cast-in-place inserts must be completely dry. The volatiles content on the inserts
must be audited, measured, and recorded.
3. The cast-in-place inserts must be properly stored (maintained clean and dry).

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1. There must be a regular audit to section the castings to inspect the bonding of the
cast in place insert with the aluminum. Audit results must be documented.
F4.3 Insert Audit 2. Depending on customer design requirements, dye penetrant inspection may be
required on machined castings to inspect for cracks (or contact separation) around the
inserts. Audit results must be documented.
5.0 Molding/Pouring/Casting Operation
F5.1 Start-Up Process
transfer ladles.
F5.2 Filter
1. Pouring into the molds may be from autopours (holders), auto ladles, manual ladles,
automatic reciprocating ladlers, pressure pour launders, or low pressure filling
F5.3 Pouring processes.
Engineering approves manual pouring.
1. Autopouring into the molds is preferred.

2. If autopours are used, they must have heat.
F5.4 Autopours (holders) 3. Autopours must be capable of controlling metal temperature at the metal extraction
point (stopper rod) to within +/-5C.
4. The autopour (holder) thermocouple must trigger an alarm if out of range.
1. Auto ladles must have a teapot spout construction in order to hold dross back.
2. Auto ladles must be on heat when not in use.
F5.5 Auto Ladles and Manual Ladle
3. Immersion temperature audit from each ladle to confirm that all molds were poured
within specified temperature range.

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1. Ladles must be made of or coated with an insulating material.

2. Ladles must be free of skull (aluminum oxide film) before entering the dip well. Visual
3. Auto pour ladle design must have a dam (hole in the back) to hold back the dross.
Back tilt the ladle such that the ladle fills through the hole submerged beneath the
F5.6 Automatic Reciprocating Ladlers. surface of the metal.
4. Dipwells must be frequently skimmed to minimize the dross accumulation.
5. Metal ladles must be on heat at their home position.
6. Holding furnaces at the cast machines must be capable of controlling metal
temperature at the metal extraction point (Dip Well) to within +/- 5°C.
7. The cast machine holding furnace thermocouple must trigger an alarm if out of range.
1. Launders from pressure pour dosing furnaces must be designed and maintained such
that metal does not buildup in them.
2. When pressure pour dosing furnaces are used, an inert gas or dry air may be used to
pressurize the chamber. If air is used, the dew point must be less than -40º C,
F5.7 Launders
3. Pressure pour dosing furnaces at the cast machines must be capable of controlling
metal temperature at the metal extraction point to within +/- 5°C.
4. The dosing furnace thermocouple must trigger an alarm if out of range.

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1. Chemistry and vacuum gas samples must be taken from the low-pressure holding
furnace.
2. The holding furnace must be skimmed off after every fill of the furnace.
3. A filter must be used in the top of the fill tube or in the gating.
A fine filter must be used in the bottom of the fill tube.
The bottom end of the fill tube should be inside a fine filter chamber submerged in the
F5.8 Low Pressure Filling Processes molten metal.
4. All fill tubes to be made of solid ceramic material. Cast iron fill tubes are not allowed.
5. If the holding furnace is pressurized with air, the dewpoint must be below -80ºC.
6. The software for the fill profile must have an infinite number of channels available for
process optimization. Delta P less than 30 mbar during pressure rise is preferred.
temperature at the metal extraction point to within +/- 5°C.
F5.9 Oxide Control

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1. It is preferred that the molds have traceability to each ladle / heat of metal poured.
The location for the first mold and last mold per ladle / heat should be easily identifiable.
F5.10 Mold Traceability 2. Cast lines with multiple cooling lines must track each mold from each ladle / heat of
F5.11 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change
F5.12 Control Limits shakeout control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control limits.
Castings that are outside the control limits must be marked and later scraped.
1. There must be an on-site sand lab equipped for checking both molding sand and core
sand.
F5.13 Sand Lab
Sieve analysis, loss on ignition (LOI), core strength tests, compactability, moisture,
%volatiles, methylene blue test for active clay, compression, permeability.
The sand system must have sufficient cooling systems and controls to keep the
F5.14 Sand Temperature temperature of the molding sand going into the molds below specified temperature per
the control plan. It is preferred not to exceed 40C sand temperature at the mold line.
Post Processing and

6.0
Heat Treating
F6.1 De-Coring
Riser removal should be done with an accurate cutting process such as CNC, robot, or
F6.2 Riser Removal

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and trimming.
F6.3 Trimming
F6.4 Heat Treatment treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System
must be capable to control quenching medium to within ± 5º C.
F6.5 Heat Treatment
2. The quench medium must be at least 80C unless customer Product Engineering
approves a lower temperature limit.
F6.6 Heat Treatment Cold water not to be introduced to the quench tank while parts are being quenched.
F6.7 Heat Treatment The delay from solution heat treat into a quenchant must not exceed 30 seconds.
7.0 Casting Inspection and Testing
F7.1

F7.2

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0.250mm.
F7.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
sourced.
F7.4 Wall Thickness
verification.

F7.5 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
F7.6 customer; including any high stress features in the FEA.
Etch Castings
inspections. (NaOH is sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda.)

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F7.7 X-ray
F7.8 Internal Porosity
F7.9 Repairs
used.
F8.1 Laboratory Location Product Engineering.

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F8.2 Material Property Testing percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
F8.3 Mechanical Property
features.

F8.4 Microstructure Analysis image analyzer must be capable of measuring any Product Engineering requirements

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F8.5 Hardness Testing on the hardness Master block.
7.If hardness readings are out of specification, all castings in the Lot shall be hardness
F8.6 Residual Stress Testing may be outsourced. Customer Product Engineering must approve the source which
F8.7 Fatigue Testing
the testing.
The casting plant shall demonstrate the corrosion rate of metal shall not exceed
Maximum rate as customer requirement. If applicable and required by the Customer,
F8.8 Corrosion Testing
the corrosion test shall be salt spray (Reference ASTM B117) and humidity as customer
requirement.
9.0 Leak Testing

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mass flow.
F9.1 Leak Test Requirement applications must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification.
sniffers.
channel leaks.
rate of the part.
F9.2 Leak Test Process is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
Master). 8. A

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from the customer.
F9.3 Water Dunk Capability

the part print.
2. Customer Product Engineering must approve the sealant (resin) to be used.
F9.4 Impregnation
F9.5 Flow Testing
test fixture.
F9.6 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.

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PROCESS TABLE G - Aluminum Metal Mold

Conforming /
Not Applicable
This Process Table is for aluminum semi-permanent mold and permanent mold
castings (except Cylinder Heads which has its own Table). Includes pistons, aluminum
Casting Process
alloy wheels. Cast processes include different types of equipment such as: gravity die
casting, tilt pour, rotary, low pressure die cast, and pressure counter pressure.

G1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
G1.2

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G1.3
Engineering.
G1.4 Casting Simulation
G1.5 Single Cavity the proposal must be approved by customer Product Engineering. Casting simulations
must support that multi-cavity would be same quality, or better, than single cavity.

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Engineering.
G1.6 Casting Datum
G1.7 Casting Tool Material tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts
G1.8 Core Box Design
G1.9 Core Box Vents
1. Vents or Risers should be located where simulations show the last places to fill.
2. All molds should be vented to atmosphere unless the application includes vacuum or
G1.10 Mold Vents counter pressure.
3. Only slotted vents are to be used in the molds unless other types approved by

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Molds for semi-permanent mold must be built with venturi aspirator systems in order to
G1.11 Design Feature minimize core gas related problems unless customer Product Engineering approves
alternative construction. Molds can be aspirated out the bottom, ends, or sides.
G1.12 Design Feature Molds must be built with anti-float features to keep the cores in position during pouring.
Molds must be built with side slides which can be shimmed in all directions. The intent
of this requirement is a “two piece” construction of the slides. The die steel forming
G1.13 Design Feature
casting dimensions must be adjustable without affecting the position of the slide holding
block unless customer Product Engineering approves alternative construction.
The mold should have internal circuit connections to air and/or water lines with
Internal Mold Cooling Circuit regulated temperature and flow rates. The mold must be design with sufficient internal
G1.14
Design cooling circuits. These circuits must be confirmed with simulation software, and
approved by the customer.

2. Internal mold water lines must be checked for water flow rate when the mold is new
Mold Inspection
G1.15 and during maintenance unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement.
(Such as End of Run Inspection)
simulations.
1. Molds must be recoated at a fixed frequency for preventative maintenance.

G1.16 Mold Preparation
2. Gages to check coating thickness are required.
1. Confirmation of de-calcification of the water flow lines.

2. Water and air line plumbing flow checks.
Pre- Release Checklist Elements 3. Thermocouple function check.
G1.17
Tool Room Specific 4. Ejector pin function check.
5. Steel Core and slide condition.
6. Other Items ( Hydraulic Connections, Air line Connections, Limit Switches).

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frequencies.
G1.18 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.

G1.19 Tool Changes
volumes.

G1.20 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process

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G1.21 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.

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Cores
2.0
1. There must be an on-site sand lab equipped for checking core sand.
G2.1 Sand Lab
Sieve analysis, loss on ignition (LOI), core strength tests, compactability, moisture,
%volatiles, methylene blue test for active clay, compression, permeability.
G2.2 Outsourced Cores
surfaces.
G2.3 Cold Box
blown.

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G2.4 Hot Box
blown.
G2.5 Shell Core
G2.6 Core Repair
G2.7 Cured Core Check
G2.8 Core Coating methylated spirits, or any other liquid. This includes flammable coatings; burning them
is not sufficient.

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G2.9 Core Coating The use of graphite coatings is discouraged. They are a common cause of inclusions.
G2.10 Chaplet/Spacer Any chaplets, spacers, or chills used must be completely clean and dry.
Filing on cores at the cast machines is not allowed. Cores and core assemblies must be
G2.11 Core Preparation
thoroughly blown off from all sides before they are set into molds.
assemblies.
G2.12 Core Assembly 4. Inspection criteria must be clearly defined and displayed. Core defects and their
6. For cylinder blocks, fixtured setting of the cylinder bore package is mandatory. The
fixture can be moved manually, usually by operators and a hoist. Automated core
setting is strongly preferred.
G2.13 Core Storage

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G2.14 Core Inventory as a regular practice.
placing in molds.
3.0 Cast Machines
1. A start up checklist must be used to confirm that all water and air lines are hooked up
as designed.
G3.1 Startup Procedure
G3.2 Startup and Downtime Recovery
interrupted cycles.
5. The foundry must correlate the number of start-up cycles with the finish machined /
Unless customer Product Engineering approves an alternative concept for die

temperature control, the die temperature must be controlled with thermocouples as
described in this section. 1.
Thermocouples in the molds are required. The temperature must be continuously
displayed. There must be an alarm to indicate when the temperature is out of range.
G3.3 Die Temperature Automatic temperature adjustment is required.
2. The thermocouples in the die must target the same temperature as the Solidification
simulation model.
3. Flow meters are required on all mold water / air lines. The PLC must turn the cooling
water / air On and Off based on the thermocouple temperatures. Maintain the die
temperatures within +/- 50C of the setpoint; preferably within +/- 25C.

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G3.4 Mold Coating When needed, masks should be designed to protect critical areas from coating buildup.
G3.5 Mold Cleanliness Molds must be blown out each cycle before the slides close.

2. Extraction tools should be designed to clamp on the gating or risers without touching
the final casting product.
G3.6 Extraction Tools
4. Automatic extractors should be programmed to scrap castings when parameters,
such as mold temperature, are out of range.
For pistons, each casting must be verified for metal fill by inspection of riser height.
G3.7 Riser Height
Riser height inspection method must be approved by customer Product Engineering.
4.0 Metal Control
G4.1
Storage by type.
G4.2 Source of Material
requirements.

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pouring).
chemistry samples.
calibration.
Calibration Master.
G4.3 Metal Chemistry
rate of Sludge formation. 8. The
Iron:Manganese ratio must be calculated and controlled. The recommended
G4.4 Hypereutectic Alloys
G4.5 Chemistry
reduced by the tolerance permitted on the Master Calibration Standards.

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G4.6 Grain Refinement there must be an audit to confirm that wire is being measured for correct length and
1. The most frequent silicon modification element is Strontium.
G4.7 Silicon Modification 2. Silicon modification may be required by customer Product Engineering.
3. A common target is150 ppm.
G4.8 Degassing Product Engineering approves other process controls.
water method. The specific gravity difference must be less than 0.10 of the theoretical
7. If a foundry can prove that metal with a specific gravity difference more than 0.10 of
the theoretical density will produce a good casting, a two step procedure is required.
Step One: Rotary degas the metal such that it is within 0.10 of theoretical density. Step
Two: Plunge a gasification material into the metal in order to achieve the desired
density. Gasification material must be approved by customer Product Engineering.
The first step is to get the metal “clean”. The second step adds back the gas
considered necessary to cast the part.

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G4.9 Metal Transfer it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they
must have heat.
G4.10 Metal Transfer checked. The temperature of metal being delivered must be within internally specified

Holding Metal Treatment and range, an alarm must be established to indicate an out of tolerance condition.
G4.11
Temperature Control 4. Holding furnaces at the cast machines must be capable of controlling metal
to a wider range.
5.0 Cast In Place Inserts
1. The customer Product Engineering must approve the source for cast-in-place inserts
such as piston rings and struts.
G5.1 Insert Source
Process Table before PPAP. For example, the piston ring source must implement Full
Compliance with the Centrifugal Casting Process Table before PPAP (if the rings are
from centrifugal cast tubes).
G5.2 Salt Cores For pistons, any cast-in-place salt cores must be preheated before use.

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die.
2. The cast-in-place inserts must be completely dry. The volatiles content on the inserts
G5.3 Insert Process Control
4. All piston ring inserts must be inspected for potential de-bond defects unless
specified otherwise by customer product engineering.
5. For pistons, the aluminum bath holding furnaces for ring dipping must be capable of
controlling metal temperature within +/- 5°C unless the customer agrees to a wider
range. Time in bath must be controlled within specified limits.
For pistons, it is preferred to use automation to set the piston rings, struts, salt cores,
G5.4 Insert Placement ceramic insulators into the mold. There must be a maximum time delay from finish
setting inserts to the beginning of pour which has an alarm if exceeded.
G5.6 Insert Audit 2. Depending on customer design requirements, dye penetrant inspection may be
required on machined castings to inspect for cracks (or contact separation) around the
inserts. Audit results must be documented.
6.0 Pouring
G6.1 Filter
1. If auto pouring holders are used, they must have heat.

G6.2 Auto Pouring 2. Auto pouring holders must be capable of controlling metal temperature at the metal
G6.3 Metal Pouring the tilting action must be automated.
2. Dip wells should be covered when the holding furnace is not in use.
3. Metal ladles should be on heat at their home position.

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G6.4 Batch Pour System
G6.5 Metal Quality
G6.6 Alloying
Ladles must be free of skull (aluminum oxide film) before entering the dip well. Visual
G6.6 Ladle Cleanliness
Auto pour ladle design must have a dam (hole in the back) to hold back the dross. Back
G6.7 Ladle Design tilt the ladle such that the ladle fills through the hole submerged beneath the surface of
the metal.
G6.8 Dosing Furnace pressurize the chamber. If air is used, the dew point must be less than -40º C,
G6.9 Launders
G6.10 Oxide Control
G6.11 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change

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G6.12 Control Limits extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
7.0 Low Pressure Casting Process
1. Machine must have real time monitoring capability for chamber pressure, metal
position in tube, cavity fill time, mold temperature, metal temperature, and cycle time.
2. When applicable, flow monitoring transducers should be in place for cooling lines.
G7.1 Process Profile Monitoring
3. Cast machine should have real time closed loop monitoring which is either tied into
the extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
limits.
Unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement, filters must be used in
the fill tubes.
1. A coarse filter must be used in the top of the fill tube.
G7.2 Fill Tube Best Practices 2. A fine filter must be used in the bottom of the fill tube.
3. All fill tubes must be made of solid ceramic material. Cast iron fill tubes are not
allowed. If the holding furnace is stationary, the bottom end of the fill tube should be
inside a fine filter chamber submerged in the molten metal.
Inert gases are preferred. If dry air is used the dew point must be less than -40º C,
G7.3 Low Pressure Cover Gas
G7.4 Metal Quality Chemistry and density samples must be taken from the low pressure holding furnace.
1. If the holding furnace is stationary, pouring blocks with filters should be used when
G7.5 Metal Quality filling the holder.
2. The holding furnace must be skimmed off after every fill of the furnace.
1. The software for the fill/pressure profile should have an infinite number of channels
G7.6 Process Control available for process options.
2. Delta P less than 30 mbar during pressure rise is preferred.

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Post Processing and Heat
8.0
Treating
Some customers may require the pistons to be water quenched immediately after
G8.1 Water Quenching extraction. Water level must be monitored and maintained within a narrow range if the
purpose of the quenching is for Material properties.
G8.2 De-Coring
Riser removal must not damage casting. When riser removal requires a cutting
G8.3 Riser Removal operation, it should be done with an accurate cutting process such as CNC, robot, or
and trimming.
G8.4 Trimming
G8.5 Heat Treatment treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System
G8.6 Heat Treatment
G8.7 Heat Treatment Cold water not to be introduced to the quench tank while parts are being quenched.
G8.8 Heat Treatment The delay from solution heat treat into a quenchant must not exceed 30 seconds.
G9.1

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G9.2
0.250mm.
G9.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
sourced.

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G9.4 Wall Thickness
verification.

G9.5 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
Pistons with salt ring cores must be 100% ball checked after salt core removal unless
G9.6 Ball Check
customer Product Engineering specifies a different frequency.

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G9.7 customer; including any high stress features in the FEA.
Etch Castings
inspections. (NaOH is sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda).

G9.8 X-ray
G9.9 Internal Porosity
G9.10 Repairs
used.

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G10.1 Laboratory Location Product Engineering.

G10.2 Material Property Testing percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
G10.3 Mechanical Property
features.

G10.4 Microstructure Analysis image analyzer must be capable of measuring any Product Engineering requirements

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G10.5 Hardness Testing on the hardness Master block.
G10.6 Residual Stress Testing may be outsourced. Customer Product Engineering must approve the source which
G10.7 Fatigue Testing
the testing.

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G10.8 Corrosion Testing
requirement.
11.0 Leak Testing
mass flow.
G11.1 Leak Test Requirement applications must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification.
sniffers.

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channel leaks.
rate of the part.
G11.2 Leak Test Process is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
Master). 8. A
1. The supplier shall have water dunk capability on site for determining the location of
from the customer.
G11.3 Water Dunk Capability

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the part print.
G11.4 Impregnation
G11.5 Flow Testing
test fixture.
G11.6 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.
12.0 Piston Specific
1. Any coating process must be in full compliance with CQI-12: Coating System
Assessment.
2. Humidity in graphite screen printing rooms must not exceed 50%.
G12.1 Coating and Plating
3. Temperature in graphite screen printing rooms must be controlled.
4. Any plating process must be in full compliance with CQI-11: Plating System
Assessment.
1. Pistons with salt ring cores must be 100% ball checked after salt core removal.
2. Pistons must be 100% ultrasonic checked unless customer Product Engineering
G12.2 Inspections explicitly states it is not required.
3. Pistons must be 100% eddy current checked unless customer Product Engineering
explicitly states it is not required.

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PROCESS TABLE H - Aluminum High Pressure Die Cast

Conforming /
Not Applicable
This Table is for conventional high pressure die casting, horizontal and vertical squeeze
Casting Process
casting, semi-solid, and similar variants of die casting.

H1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
H1.2

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H1.3
Engineering.
venting system prior to tooling construction and prototype part submission. Simulation
H1.4 Casting Simulation 2. Results must be reviewed with the Customer Product Engineering.
4. It is strongly recommended that the solidification modeling software be capable of
modeling jet cooling. It is strongly recommended that the solidification modeling
software be capable of modeling squeeze pins.
H1.5 Single Cavity the proposal must be approved by customer Product Engineering. Casting simulations
must support that multi-cavity would produce acceptable quality castings in all cavities.

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Engineering. 3. Whenever
possible, the X-Y-Z datum surfaces used on the machined components should be the
same X-Y-Z datum surfaces as the raw castings. This is for dimensional control
H1.6 Casting Datum
purposes and minimizing datum shifts between the casting and machined surfaces (one
of the causal factors related to thin-wall conditions).
1. The die steel must meet industry standard material specification and be specified on
the die detail drawings. Typical alloys are H11 and H13.
2. Minimum Requirement for insert materials is the NADCA Standard 207- (Latest
Edition).
3. When Applicable the casting plant must be able to demonstrate compliance with
Customer Specific Requirements for insert and cavity applications.
H1.7 Die Material 4. The holding blocks (frames) must be made from steel with control of the material
hardness to customer specific requirements. Typical alloys are P20, 4140, 8620.
tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts
1. Minimum requirement: Die steel must be heat treated in accordance with NADCA
Standard 207- (Latest Edition).
H1.8 Die Heat Treatment
2. When applicable the casting plant must be able to show compliance for the final
hardness metallurgical properties and impact toughness.
When applicable, the die design may be specified in whole or in part by the customer.
H1.9 Die Design Approval
For example, high wear features, such as sealing grooves, should be built as inserts.

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1. Overflows should be located where simulations show the last places to fill.
2. All dies should be vented to atmosphere unless the application includes vacuum
H1.10 Die Vents assisted venting.
3. All dies must have at least one chill vent unless customer Product Engineering
waives this requirement.
1. The casting plant must be able to demonstrate the die sealing surface check on the
production press.
H1.11 Die Sealing Surface Validation
2. A spotting press must be used to audit the warm die sealing surface unless customer
Product Engineering waives this requirement. Spotting press can be out-sourced.
1. Minimum distance established from part edge to cavity insert with design review and
H1.12 Parting Line Shut Off Distance approval by the casting plant.
2. Distances established based on industry standards or documented supplier practice.
Dies may be water cooled, oil cooled, or both, with regulated temperature and flow
H1.13 Internal Die Cooling Circuit Design rates. The die must be designed with sufficient internal cooling circuits. These circuits
must be confirmed with simulation software, and approved by the customer.

2. Verification prior to releasing the die to production.
Die Inspection (Such as End of run 3. Internal mold water lines must be checked for water flow rate when the mold is new
H1.14
Inspection) and during maintenance unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement.
simulations.
1. Confirmation of de-calcification of the water flow line.

2. Water and hot oil plumbing flow checks.
3. Thermocouple function check.
Pre- Release Checklist Elements
H1.15 4. Ejector pin function check.
Tool Room
5. Core Condition.
6. Other Items ( Hydraulic Connections, Air line Connections, Vacuum valve Actuator
Cylinders, Limit Switches).

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1. The life of the die is tracked based on number of cycles.
frequencies.
H1.16 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.

H1.17 Tool Changes
volumes.

H1.18 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process

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specification and/or part drawing).
H1.19 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.
2.0 Cast Machines
1. A start up checklist must be used to confirm that all water, oil, and air lines are
hooked up as designed.
H2.1 Start-Up
H2.2 Startup and Downtime Recovery
interrupted cycles. 5.
The foundry must correlate the number of start-up cycles with the finish machined /

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1. The die cast machine size must be determined using projected area/shot force
calculations, preferably by using North American Die Casting Association (NADCA) PQ²
software or other similar calculation methods.
2. Shot Speeds and Pressures must be determined by using Flow Analysis Software.
H2.3 Machine Selection
3. Verification that the machine's shot end has the capability to fill the die in the required
time must be verified with NADCA PQ² software or similar calculations.
4. For machine tonnages over 1800T, ABAQUS software or similar software is strongly
recommended for analyzing die / machine distortion.
1. The shot force must be less than the clamping force.

2. Preferred metal pressures are over 10,000 psi = 700 kg/cm2 = 700 bar = 68.5 MPa.
H2.4 Shot Force
3. To meet common Product Engineering requirements for material properties, internal
porosity, and leakage, the pressure is usually about 80 MPa.
1. Machine must have real time shot monitoring capability for shot speeds, positions,
pressures, cycle time, slow shot velocity, fast shot velocity, intensification pressure,
biscuit length, slow shot distance, intensification rise time.
2. The cast machine real time shot monitoring must be programmed with the
H2.5 Shot Profile Control extractor/robot control or create an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
limits.
3. It is recommended that the entire shot curve be monitored, not just discrete points.
4. The intent is for castings which are outside shot profile control limits to be reliably
separated and scrapped.
Low Inertia Shot End/Shot

H2.6 Machines with a low inertia shot end or shot deceleration are recommended.
Deceleration
H2.7 Automatic Tie Bar Machines with automatic tie bar adjustment are preferred.
1. The critical slow shot should be calculated using the percentage that minimizes wave
formation and air during injection of the metal. Casting source should be able to show
H2.8 Fill Percentage justification for using the percent fill that they picked.
2. The fill percentage in the shot sleeve must be at least 50% unless customer Product
Engineering approves a lower percentage.

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1. Die cavity surface temperature must be audited with target values and tolerances.
2. Infrared Cameras, lasers, or touch probes can be used.
3. Thermocouples in the molds are recommended. The temperature should be
H2.9 Die Temperature Control
continuously displayed. There should be an alarm to indicate when the temperature is
out of range. Automatic temperature adjustment is preferred.
4. Die water flow should be maintained while the die is hot.
1. Plunger lubrication should have controls to avoid excessive plunger lubrication.

2. Plunger tip lubricants must be dispensed onto the plunger tip outside of the shot
H2.10 Plunger (Shot Tip) Lube sleeve. Dispensing plunger tip lubricants inside the shot sleeve is not allowed unless
customer Product Engineering waives this requirement. Vertical squeeze casting must
minimize the usage of spray mist lubricants inside the shot sleeve.
H2.11 Plunger (Shot Tips) Shot tips should be water or oil cooled.
1. Manual spraying is allowed. Auto spray systems are preferred.

2. Auto spray heads must be programmable or dedicated to the die. Spray heads
requiring operator adjustment of flexible tubing are not allowed. Any copper tubing must
be securely clamped such that the spray pattern is fixed. Confirmation of spray pattern
must be visually observed as part of die set-up, or other opportunity prior to the start of
H2.12 Die Spray
production.
3. If a central die spray system is used; it is preferred that the system pressures be
controlled, and alarmed with panel lights or other alarms if out-of-control conditions
exist.
4. It is preferred that there be a physical audit for the actual spray quantity per cycle.
Die spray fluids must be formulated and controlled. Control method is pre-control chart.
H2.13 Die Lube Ratio
Measurement instrument is a refractometer or equivalent.
,

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1. In order to meet porosity specifications, it is critical for the die cavity to be totally dry
when the shot is made.
This must be taken into account when designing the die, the holding block (frame) and
selecting the spraying method.
2. It is recommended to sample new dies with manual spray only. Assure the die is
completely dry. Inspections for porosity in the castings can be compared with the
H2.14 Air Blow-Off simulation modeling. After a baseline is established with manual spray, it is
recommended to sample the dies with the auto sprayer (if an auto sprayer is intended to
be used in production) followed by a manual blow off. Compare with the baseline.
There should be no deterioration in the porosity results. If the results are as good as
the baseline, then sample the die with fully automatic spray and blow off. Compare with
the baseline. The intent is to assure that the automation is actually getting the die cavity
totally dry.

2. Extraction tools must be designed to utilize the biscuit or gating for clamping without
touching the final casting product.
H2.15 Extraction
4. Automatic extractors must be programmed to scrap castings when parameters, such
as metal temperature, biscuit size, are out of range.
1. Each casting must be confirmed for proper position in the die before trimming. The
preferred method to confirm proper part position in the trim die is a sensor.
H2.16 Trimming
2. To avoid mechanical distortion of parts, stroke control and energy absorption
methods should be used.
3.0 Start-Up Procedures
1. Flow meters are required on all mold water / oil lines unless customer Product
Engineering waives this requirement.
2. Water, air, oil lines must be hooked up as designed. Error proofed or color coded
H3.1 Die Heat or Cooling
lines are required.
3. If external cooling is utilized, spray flow rates and location must be planned and
measured.

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Confirm that the oil temperature is set at the specified temperature prior to the start of
H3.2 Hot Oil Verification
production. Recorded by a checklist.
H3.3 Die Pre-Heat Temperature Confirm that the die cavity temperature is set correctly with the specific die.
H3.4 Shot Parameter Verification Confirm that the shot end hydraulic controls are set correctly with the specific die.
H3.5 Die Spray System Verification Confirm that the sprayer controls are set correctly with the specific die.
The machine must alarm for either operator or automated scrapping based on cycle
H3.6 Scrap Standard Number of Pieces count from start-up. An accounting system for scrap parts after machine cycle
interruptions must be in place.
4.0 Metal Control
H4.1
Storage by type.
H4.2 Source of Material
requirements.

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pouring).
chemistry samples.
calibration.
Calibration Master.
H4.3 Metal Chemistry
H4.4 Hypereutectic Alloys
H4.5 Chemistry

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H4.6 Grain Refinement
The most frequent silicon modification element is Strontium.

H4.7 Silicon Modification 1. Silicon modification may be required by customer Product Engineering.
2. A common target is 150 ppm.
H4.8 Degassing
H4.9 Metal Transfer it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they
must have heat.
H4.10 Metal Transfer checked. The temperature of metal being delivered must be within internally specified

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1. Metal at the cast machine must be in holders. Holders must have heat.
2. The temperature output must be readable by the machine operator. If the metal
temperature in the holding furnace falls outside of the specified range, an alarm must be
Holding Metal Treatment and
H4.11 established to indicate an out of tolerance condition.
Temperature Control
to a wider range.
H4.12 Metal Quality
H4.13 Alloying
H5.1 Insert Source Process Table before PPAP. For example, a ductile iron bearing cap in a bedplate, the
Table before PPAP.
die.
H5.2 Insert Process Control 2. The cast-in-place inserts must be completely dry. The volatiles content on the inserts
H5.3 Insert Audit 2. Machined castings must be dye penetrant audited to inspect for cracks (or contact
separation) around the inserts unless customer Product Engineering approves an
alternative method. Audit results must be documented.
6.0 Pouring/Casting Operation

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1. Ladles must be made of, or coated with, an insulating material.

2. Time from metal extraction to casting shot must be minimized and controlled.
3. Automatic pouring of molten metal into the shot sleeve is required. Manual pouring is
not allowed.
4. Pouring height into the shot sleeve must be minimized.
5. Ladles must be free of residual "skull" material (aluminum film known to contain high
H6.1 Pouring Ladle Control concentration of oxides) before entering the dip well. Visual inspection criteria should be
defined and posted in the work area.
surface of the metal.
7. Metal ladles must be positioned where heat from the melt surface can keep the ladle
hot when it is "parked" at the home position.
H6.2 Dosing Furnace pressurize the chamber. If air is used, the dew point must be less than -40º C,
H6.3 Launders
H6.4 Oxide Control
H6.5 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change

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H6.6 Control Limits extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
H6.7 Heat Treatment treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System
H6.8 Heat Treatment
H6.9 Heat Treatment Cold water not to be introduced to the quench tank while parts are being quenched.
H6.10 Heat Treatment The delay from solution heat treat into a quenchant must not exceed 30 seconds.
H7.1

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H7.2
0.250mm.
H7.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
sourced.
H7.4 Wall Thickness
verification.

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H7.5 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
Dye Penetrant Check and
H7.6 customer; including any high stress features in the FEA.
NaOH Etch Castings
inspections. (NaOH is sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda.).

H7.7 X-ray
H7.8 Internal Porosity
H7.9 Repairs
used.

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chemistries, hardness, microstructure, area fraction porosity, dendritic arm spacing
(DAS), silicon particle size, and any other features specified by customer Product
H8.1 Laboratory Location Engineering.

H8.2 Material Property Testing percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
H8.3 Mechanical Property
features.

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H8.4 Microstructure Analysis image analyzer must be capable of measuring any Product Engineering requirements
such as Area Fraction porosity.
H8.5 Hardness Testing on the hardness Master block.
H8.6 Residual Stress Testing
H8.7 Fatigue Testing
the testing.

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Maximum rate as customer requirement. If applicable and required by the customer, the
H8.8 Corrosion Testing
corrosion test shall be salt spray (Reference ASTM B117) and humidity as customer
requirement.
9.0 Leak Testing
mass flow.
H9.1 Leak Test Requirement applications must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification.
sniffers.

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channel leaks.
rate of the part.
H9.2 Leak Test Process is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
Master). 8. A
from the customer.
H9.3 Water Dunk Capability

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the part print.
H9.4 Impregnation
H9.5 Flow Testing
test fixture.
H9.6 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.

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PROCESS TABLE I - Magnesium High Pressure Die Cast

Conforming /
Not Applicable
This Table is for conventional high pressure die casting, horizontal and vertical squeeze
Casting Process
casting, and similar variants of die casting.
I1.1
I1.2
Engineering.

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I1.3 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
transfer.
I1.4 Casting Simulation 2. Results must be reviewed with the Customer Product Engineering.
I1.5 Single Cavity the proposal must be approved by customer Product Engineering. Casting simulations
Engineering.
I1.6 Casting Datum

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1. The production intent die steel must meet industry standard material specification
and be specified on the die detail drawings. Typical alloys are H11 and H13.
Edition).
I1.7 Die Material 4. The holding blocks (frames) must be made from steel with control of the material
hardness to customer specific Requirements. Typical alloys are P20, 4140, 8620.
tools” to produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts
I1.8 Die Heat Treatment
hardness, metallurgical properties and impact toughness.
I1.9 Die Design Approval Examples: Customer approval for parting line placements; high wear features sealing
grooves are replaceable, and should be built as inserts.
I1.10 Die Vents assisted venting.
The casting plant must be able to demonstrate the die sealing surface check.
1. Because the heat loads are significantly lower with magnesium dies it is acceptable
I1.11 Die Sealing Surface Validation to use a try out press instead of a production press.

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1.Minimum distance established from part edge to cavity insert with design review and
I1.12 Parting Line Shut off Distance approval by the casting plant.
The die must be designed with sufficient internal oil heating / cooling circuits with
I1.13 Internal Die Cooling Circuit Design regulated temperature and flow rates. These circuits must be confirmed with simulation
software, and approved by the customer.

Die Inspection (For example: End
I1.14 2. Verification prior to releasing the die to production.
of Run Inspection)
3. All fluid lines should be verified for flow at die inspection with appropriate corrective
action taken if flow is below acceptable limits.
1. Confirmation of fluid line flow inspection . Some customers may require flow for each
individual line to be measured and documented.
I1.15 3. Ejector pin function.
Tool Room Specific
4. Core Condition.
5. Other items ( Hydraulic Connections, air line Connections, Vacuum valve Actuator

frequencies.
I1.16 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.

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I1.17 Tool Changes
volumes.

I1.18 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process
I1.19 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.

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2.0 Ingot Supplier
The ingot alloys shall meet the chemical composition requirement per ASTM B93/B93M
I2.1 Chemical Composition
and ISO 16220. Material Certificates are acceptable for incoming materials.
1. Evidence of compliance will be indicated by 3rd party report or in-house activity. The
sample location needs approval by the customer.
2. The average oxygen content of three ingots sampled from beginning, middle and end
shall not exceed 300 PPM as measured by ASTM E385 FNAA.
I2.2 Cleanliness for Ingot
3. The chlorine content of each alloy shall not exceed 100 PPM.
4. The ingot shall be checked at start, middle, and end of a lot or run for Fast Neutron
Activation Analysis (FNAA), cleanness and corrosion test per ASTM E385 unless
customer Product Engineering approves alternative analysis methods.
The alloy of ingots shall be stamped or use other identifications such as color coding.
I2.3 Identification 1. Color coding requirements can be found in ASTM B93-B93m, and ISO 16220.
2. Some customers may have specific color coding requirements.
If ingot corrosion rate testing is required by the customer, the ingot corrosion rate shall
I2.4 Ingot Corrosion Test not exceed customer requirement. Ingot corrosion testing may be in-house or
outsourced.
3.0 Cast Machines
I3.1 Start-Up

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I3.2 Startup and Downtime Recovery
interrupted cycles.
I3.3 Machine Selection
1. The shot force must be less than the clamping force.

2. Preferred metal pressures are over 6,000psi = 420 kg/cm2 = 420bar = 41.1 MPa.
I3.4 Shot Force
3. To meet common Product Engineering requirements for material properties, internal
porosity, and leakage, the pressure is usually about 80 MPa.

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I3.5 Shot Profile Control extractor/robot control or create an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
limits.

I3.6 Machines with a low inertia shot end or shot deceleration are recommended.
Deceleration
I3.7 Automatic Tie Bar Machines with automatic tie bar adjustment are preferred.
I3.8 Fill Percentage justification for using the percent fill that they picked.
I3.9 Die Temperature Control

I3.10 Plunger Lube sleeve. Dispensing plunger tip lubricants inside the shot sleeve is not allowed unless

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I3.11 Shot Tips Shot tips should be water or oil cooled.
1. Manual spraying is allowed. Auto spray systems are preferred. 2.

Auto spray heads must be programmable or dedicated to the die. Spray heads requiring
operator adjustment of flexible tubing are not allowed. Any copper tubing must be
securely clamped such that the spray pattern is fixed. Confirmation of spray pattern
I3.12 Die Spray
production.
exist.
I3.13 Die Lube Ratio
I3.14 Air Blow-Off simulation modeling. After a baseline is established with manual spray, it is
totally dry.

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I3.15 Extraction
I3.16 Trimming
I4.1 Die Heat or Cooling
lines are required.
measured.
I4.2 Hot Oil Verification
I4.3 Die Pre-Heat Temperature Confirm that the die cavity temperature is set correctly with the specific die.
I4.4 Shot Parameter Verification Confirm that the shot end hydraulic controls are set correctly with the specific die.
I4.5 Die Spray System Verification Confirm that the sprayer controls are set correctly with the specific die.
I4.6 Scrap Standard Number of Pieces count from start-up. An accounting system for scrap parts after machine cycle

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5.0 Metal Control
I5.1
Storage by type.
pouring).
2. It is required to use ASTM B953 molds for chemistry samples.
as ASTM B954, must be followed for sampling, verification, standardization and
calibration.
I5.2 Metal Chemistry 4. The Spectrometer must have certified Master Calibration Standards which cover the
Calibration Master.
I5.3 Chemistry
1. The ingot must be clean before melting.

2. The ingot must be preheated before melting. The preheating temperature should be
higher than 150C.
3. Equipment for melting and holding must be multiple chambers. Single chamber
equipment is not allowed.
4. Magnesium alloy is sensitive to temperature. Hot oil or electric cartridge heating
shall be applied.
Metal is covered and inert gas applied to the metal through a flow control. Cover gases
I5.4 Inert Gas Cover Metal
such as SF6, SO2, CO2, NOVEC 612, and N2 must be used.

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Metal handling tools shall not include harmful element for alloy property, such as Ni, Cu
I5.5 Melting Tool
and Si. Coated Steel tools are preferred.
temperature in the holding furnace falls outside of the specified range, an alarm must be
I5.6 Holding Temperature established to indicate an out of tolerance condition.
to a wider range.
6.0 Casting Insert (if applicable)
1. The customer Product Engineering must approve the source for Cast in Place Inserts.
2. The insert source must implement Full Compliance with the applicable Process Table
I6.1 Insert Source before PPAP. For example, an iron cylinder liner in a block, the casting source must
implement Full Compliance with the Centrifugal Liner Casting Process Table before
PPAP.
die.
I6.2 Insert Process Control 2. The cast-in-place inserts must be completely dry. The volatiles content on the inserts
cast-in-place insert with the magnesium. Audit results must be documented.
I6.3 Insert Audit 2. Machined castings must be dye penetrant audited to inspect for cracks (or contact
7.0 Pouring/Casting Operation

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I7.1 Pouring Control
not allowed.
1.The dosing volume must be verified during regular production.

I7.2 Dosing Volume
2. Dosing parameters must be monitored.
I7.3 Launders
I7.4 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change

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I7.5 Control Limits extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
I8.1

I8.2
customer Product Engineering). 3. The raw
casting datums must be included in all CMM hitpoint programs. The intent is to be able
to dimensionally check the casting at any stage of manufacture in order to know if the
raw casting was To Print. This expressly includes being able to check a finish
machined component to determine if the raw casting was To Print.

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0.250mm.
I8.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
sourced.
I8.4 Wall Thickness
verification.

I8.5 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
1. There must be a regular audit to dye penetrant check (color check) or fluorescent
penetrant inspection (FPI) entire casting or sections of castings specified by customer;
Fluorescent Liquid Penetrant including any high stress features in the FEA. 2. There
I8.6
Inspection must be on-site capability to regular audit with dye penetrant (color check) or
customer; including any high stress features in the FEA.

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I8.7 X-ray
I8.8 Internal Porosity
I8.9 Repairs
used.
specified by customer Product Engineering. 2. The
I9.1 Laboratory Location
supplier shall have Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) capability available. The
SEM does not have to be on-site. However, the location and access to it must be

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I9.2 Mechanical Property percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
I9.3 Mechanical Property
features.

I9.4 Microstructure Analysis image analyzer must be capable of measuring any Product Engineering requirements

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I9.5 Hardness Testing on the hardness Master block.
7.If hardness readings are out of specification, all castings in the Lot shall be hardness
I9.6 Corrosion Testing
requirement.
I9.7 Heat Treatment treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System
I9.8 Residual Stress Testing
I9.9 Fatigue Testing
the testing.
10.0 Leak Testing

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Not Applicable
mass flow.
I10.1 Leak Test Requirement applications must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification.
sniffers.
channel leaks.
rate of the part.
I10.2 Leak Test Process is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
Master). 8. A

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1. The supplier shall have water dunk capability on site for determining the location of
from the customer.
I10.3 Water Dunk Capability

the part print. 2.
I10.4 Impregnation
I10.5 Flow Testing
test fixture.
I10.6 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.

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PROCESS TABLE J - Zinc High Pressure Die Cast

Conforming /
Not Applicable
Casting Process This Table is for cold chamber and hot chamber high pressure die casting of zinc alloys.

J1.1 Design Software 2. Casting plant must have and maintain customer specific requirements for math data
J1.2

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J1.3
Engineering.
J1.4 Casting Simulation 2. Results must be reviewed with the Customer Product Engineering.
J1.5 Single Cavity the proposal must be approved by customer Product Engineering. Casting simulations

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Engineering.
J1.6 Casting Datum
1. The die steel must meet industry standard material specification and be specified on
the die detail drawings. Typical alloys are H11 and H13.
Edition).
J1.7 Die Material 4. The holding blocks (frames) must be made from steel with control of the material
hardness to customer specific Requirements. Typical alloys are P20, 4140, 8620.3.
With customer Product Engineering prior approval, the supplier can utilize “soft tools” to
produce prototype samples if production tooling is not available when the parts are
required. These sample castings may be used for activity such as product validation
tests, assembly builds, and machine tool runoffs. The castings must be produced with
the production intent melting and metal handling process.
J1.8 Die Heat Treatment
hardness metallurgical properties and impact toughness.
J1.9 Die Design Approval
For example, high wear features, such as sealing grooves, should be built as inserts.

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J1.10 Die Vents assisted venting.
1. The casting plant must be able to demonstrate the die sealing surface check on the
production press.
J1.11 Die Sealing Surface Validation
1.Minimum distance established from part edge to cavity insert with design review and
J1.12 Parting Line Shut Off Distance approval by the casting plant.
Dies may be water cooled, oil cooled, or both, with regulated temperature and flow
J1.13 Internal Die Cooling Circuit Design rates. The die must be designed with sufficient internal cooling circuits. These circuits
must be confirmed with simulation software, and approved by the customer.

2. Verification prior to releasing the die to production.
Die Inspection (Example: End of 3. Internal mold water lines must be checked for water flow rate when the mold is new
J1.14
Run Inspection) and during maintenance unless customer Product Engineering waives this requirement.
simulations.

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1. Confirmation of de-calcification of the water flow line.
2. Water and hot oil plumbing flow checks.
J1.15 4. Ejector pin function check; ejector pin height check.
Tool Room
5. Core Condition.
6. Other Items ( Hydraulic Connections, Air line Connections, Vacuum valve Actuator

frequencies.
J1.16 Tooling Maintenance 3. Checksheet to track completion of regular maintenance.

J1.17 Tool Changes
volumes.

J1.18 Casting Traceability 2. In some applications, traceability to both casting machine and/or measured process

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J1.19 Fixtures and Gages
by third party.
2.0 Ingot
Ingots that are used shall conform to ASTM B240 or similar customer specified
J2.1 Chemistry control
standards.
Each ingot shall be marked with a chemistry grade designation by a cast, stamped or
J2.2 Identification color identification in accordance with customer requirements. In addition, each bundle
or pallet of ingots shall be identified with a heat or lot identification.

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J2.3 Ingot Cleanliness Each ingot shall be free of dross, adhering foreign matter and surface oxides.
3.0 Metal Control
J3.1
Storage by type.
J3.2 Source of Material
requirements.
pouring).
2. It is required to use ASTM E634 disk book molds for chemistry samples.
calibration.
J3.3 Metal Chemistry 4. The Spectrometer must have certified Master Calibration Standards which cover the
Calibration Master.
1.For any elements with customer specified mandatory limits, these limits must be
2. To prevent intergranular corrosion, the total content of Pb%+Cd%+Sn% should be
J3.4 Chemistry
lower than 0.01%.
3. Iron 0.1% maximum unless customer Product Engineering approves a higher limit.
Iron pick-up from crucibles and tools used in melting must be minimized.

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J3.5 Degassing
vacuum pressure.
Metal Transfer
J3.6 it may be transferred to intermediate holders. If intermediate holders are used, they
must have heat.
Metal Transfer
J3.7 checked. The temperature of metal being delivered must be within internally specified
Holding Metal Treatment and temperature in the holding furnace falls outside of the specified range, an alarm must be
J3.8 Temperature Control established to indicate an out of tolerance condition.
to a wider range.

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Not Applicable
J3.9 Metal Quality
J3.10 Alloying
J4.1 Insert Source Process Table before PPAP. For example, a ductile iron bearing cap in a bedplate, the
Table before PPAP.
die.
J4.2 Insert Process Control 2. The cast-in-place inserts must be completely dry. The volatiles content on the inserts
cast in place insert with the zinc. Audit results must be documented.
J4.3 Insert Audit 2. Machined castings must be dye penetrant audited to inspect for cracks (or contact
5.0 Cast Machines Common requirements for cold chamber and hot chamber high pressure die casting machines

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J5.1 Machine Selection
J5.2 Shot Force The shot force must be less than the clamping force.
1. Machine must have real time shot monitoring capability for shot speeds, pressures,
cycle time.
extractor/robot control or create an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
J5.3 Shot Profile Control
limits.
J5.4 Automatic Tie Bar Machines with automatic tie bar adjustment are preferred.
J5.5 Die Temperature Control

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1. Manual spraying is allowed. Auto spray systems are preferred.
2. Auto spray heads must be programmable or dedicated to the die. Spray heads
requiring operator adjustment of flexible tubing are not allowed. Any copper tubing must
be securely clamped such that the spray pattern is fixed. Confirmation of spray pattern
J5.6 Die Spray
production.
exist.
J5.7 Die Lube Ratio
J5.8 Air Blow-Off simulation modeling. After a baseline is established with manual spray, it is
totally dry.

J5.9 Extraction

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J5.10 Trimming
J5.11 Dosing Furnace pressurize the chamber. If air is used, the dew point must be less than -40º C,
J5.12 Launders
J5.13 Cleanliness Control
J5.14 Machine Settings protected from non-authorized changes so that only authorized personnel can change
J5.15 Control Limits extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are beyond control
6.0 Cast Machines Requirements specific to hot chamber high pressure die casting machines.
1. Time from metal extraction (Shot time and Shot delay time) to casting shot must be
J6.1 Hot Chamber Machines minimized and controlled.
2.The temperature at gooseneck and nozzle must be monitored and controlled.

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7.0 Cast Machines Requirements specific to cold chamber high pressure die casting machines
J7.1 Shot Profile Control 2. It is recommended cast machine have real time shot monitoring capability which is
either tied into the extractor/robot control or creates an alarm when key parameters are
beyond control limits.

J7.2 Machines with a low inertia shot end or shot deceleration are recommended.
Deceleration
J7.3 Fill Percentage justification for using the percent fill that they picked.

J7.4 Plunger (Shot Tip) Lube sleeve. Dispensing plunger tip lubricants inside the shot sleeve is not allowed unless
J7.5 Plunger (Shot Tips) Shot tips should be water or oil cooled.

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Not Applicable
1. Ladles must be made of, or coated with, an insulating material.
not allowed.
5. Ladles must be free of residual "skull" material (zinc film known to contain high
J7.6 Pouring Ladle Control concentration of oxides) before entering the dip well. Visual inspection criteria should be
defined and posted in the work area.
surface of the metal.
7. Metal ladles must be positioned where heat from the melt surface can keep the ladle
hot when it is "parked" at the home position.
J8.1 Start-Up
J8.2 Startup and Downtime Recovery
interrupted cycles.

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J8.3 Die Heat or Cooling
lines are required.
measured.
J8.4 Hot Oil Verification
J8.5 Die Pre-Heat Temperature Confirm that the die cavity temperature is set correctly with the specific die.
J8.6 Shot Parameter Verification Confirm that the shot end hydraulic controls are set correctly with the specific die.
J8.7 Die Spray System Verification Confirm that the sprayer controls are set correctly with the specific die.
J8.8 Scrap Standard Number of Pieces count from start-up. An accounting system for scrap parts after machine cycle
9.0 Heat Treatment
If necessary to meet dimensional requirements a stabilization anneal may be specified

by customer Product Engineering. If specified, a stabilization anneal commonly
J9.1 Heat Treatment
recommended is 3 to 6 hours at 100 °C. Heat treatment time is measured from the time
when the castings reach the annealing temperature.
J9.2 Heat Treatment treating must be in compliance with CQI-9: Special Process: Heat Treat System

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J10.1

J10.2
0.250mm.
J10.3 raw casting datum surfaces. Results must be shared with customer Product Engineering
Part Two
sourced.

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Not Applicable
J10.4 Wall Thickness
verification.

J10.5 Internal Passages blocked passages. This may include boroscopes, endoscopes, probes, fiber optics, flow
meters, or X-ray.
There must be on-site capability to regular audit with dye penetrant (color check) or
J10.6 Liquid Penetrant Check fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) entire casting or sections of castings specified by
customer; including any high stress features in the FEA.

J10.7 X-ray
J10.8 Internal Porosity

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Not Applicable
J10.9 Repairs
used.

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Not Applicable
specified by customer Product Engineering.
J11.1 Laboratory Location

J11.2 Material Property Testing percent elongation. Yield Strength must be measured with an extensometer attached to
J11.3 Mechanical Property
features.

J11.4 Microstructure Analysis image analyzer must be capable of measuring any Product Engineering requirements

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Not Applicable
J11.5 Hardness Testing on the hardness Master block.
tested with any out-of- specification castings rejected.
Some castings may have an electrical conductivity requirement specified by customer

J11.6 Electrical Conductivity Product Engineering. The measurement method must be agreed upon with customer
J11.7 Corrosion Testing
requirement.
J11.8 Residual Stress Testing
J11.9 Fatigue Testing
the testing.
12.0 Leak Testing

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Not Applicable
mass flow.
J12.1 Leak Test Requirement applications must use air under water or helium particle counters (sniffers).
specification.
sniffers.
channel leaks.
rate of the part.
J12.2 Leak Test Process is an Impregnated casting. Verify in water dunk that is has zero bubbles.
Master). 8. A

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from the customer.
J12.3 Water Dunk Capability

the part print.
J12.4 Impregnation
J12.5 Flow Testing
test fixture.
J12.6 Error-Proofing
not error-proofing.

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CQI-27

Special Process: Casting System Assessment

CQI-27 Special Process: Casting System Assessment

Number of Conforming Number of Number of Not

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

1. Casting plant must be compliant to customer specific software requirements.

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

1. The life of the tooling is tracked based on number of cycles.

1. Replacement inserts (new steel), where there is a customer specific requirement, a

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

2.0 Metal Control

Charging Materials and Alloy

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

There must be documented instruction/process to assure adequate pre-heating of the

The nodularizing reaction time may be required by customer to be measured and

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

Filing on cores at the cast machines is not allowed.

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

5.0 Molding/Pouring/Casting Operation

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.

Describe the scope of the audit:

© 2017 Automotive Industry Action Group

PROCESS TABLE A - Sand Castings (Iron/Steel)

All requirements given below are subordinate to customer specific requirements.