Patent ID: 8706283

Claim:
A system for evaluating a manufacturability of a casting design, the system comprising at least one of a geometry analyzer, a casting evaluation tool, a residual stress evaluation tool, and a machining evaluation tool, wherein: the geometry analyzer analyzes a geometric design of the casting design for compliance with a geometric design rule of casting manufacturing principles to determine a geometric design-ability of the casting design wherein the geometry analyzer analyzes the casting design by comparing search engine data of a working database against a knowledge database to determine the geometric design-ability of the casting design; the casting evaluation tool evaluates a virtual casting defined by the casting design and cast through a simulated casting process, whereby the casting evaluation tool: evaluates the geometric moduli of the virtual casting design without the use of breaking the casting design into a number of discrete pieces that correspond to a geometrically conventional surface or volume shape, and identifies the potential for formation of casting defects based on the geometric moduli to determine a cast-ability of the casting design; the residual stress evaluation tool determines the residual stress levels of the virtual casting heat treated through a simulated heat treatment process for stress levels and for a formation of cracks due to cooling in the solidification and quenching process following heat treatment to determine heat treat-ability of the casting design; the machining evaluation tool evaluates the virtual casting machined through a simulated machining process for at least one of a formation of cracks and dimensional accuracy to determine a machine-ability of the casting design; and at least one of the geometry analyzer, the casting evaluation tool, the residual stress evaluation tool, and the machining evaluation tool recommends a modification to the casting design to optimize the casting design for manufacturing if the casting design is determined as not geometrically design-able, not cast-able, not heat treat-able, or not machine-able by the geometry analyzer, the casting evaluation tool, the residual stress evaluation tool, or the machining evaluation tool, respectively.