Design and development of IoT enabled modular melting, pouring, and, stirring system for casting of non-ferrous alloys and sustainable aluminum matrix composites (AMCs)

In the modern technological world, the development of new materials to fulfill human needs is very important. The effective use of engineering materials is needed to enhance the efficiencies of various mobile and static structural applications. Advances in science, engineering, and technology have led to the development of green composite materials having the desired combination of properties like toughness, strength, stiffness, weight, etc., which is not possible to get in conventional materials. Thus, green composites are gaining a lot of attention in the fields of automobiles, aerospace, electronics, etc. Researchers have explored various techniques to develop quality composites but repeatability, poor wettability between reinforcement (particles) and matrix material, homogeneous distribution of the particles, etc. are major challenges. Melting and pouring data such as melting time, pouring time, pouring temperature, etc., need to be logged systematically. These data provide critical insight to address quality related issues at the post-processing stage and to get consistent properties and quality every time. To address these issues, in the present investigation, a compact, easy to use, and IoT enabled melting and pouring system was designed and developed to synthesize in-situ and ex-situ Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs).