ESI / Keysight CAE ProCAST 2025.0

Description

ProCAST 2025.0 is an industry-proven casting simulation software (CAE) used by foundries, manufacturers, and engineering teams to validate and optimize metal casting processes before production. With advanced physics-based simulation, ProCAST helps you predict how molten metal fills a mold, how it solidifies, and where defects are likely to occur—so you can improve quality, reduce scrap, and shorten time-to-production.

ProCAST is widely applied across sand casting, high-pressure die casting (HPDC), low-pressure die casting (LPDC), gravity casting, and investment casting. It supports the complete workflow from gating and feeding design to final defect prediction and dimensional quality control. For many organizations, ProCAST becomes a “virtual foundry” that enables engineers to test alternatives quickly—reducing physical trials, improving first-time-right success, and increasing profitability.

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Why Choose ProCAST 2025.0?

Modern casting is highly competitive. Trial-and-error is expensive, time-consuming, and risky when customers require consistent quality and short lead times. ProCAST 2025.0 helps you move engineering decisions upstream, so you can:

• Reduce scrap and rework by predicting porosity and defects before tooling runs
• Improve yield through optimized gating, feeders, chills, sleeves, and process parameters
• Shorten launch time by reducing the number of physical trials
• Improve dimensional accuracy by anticipating stress, distortion, and thermal effects
• Standardize process knowledge across shifts, sites, and engineering teams

Whether you produce safety-critical components (automotive/aerospace) or industrial high-volume castings, ProCAST delivers measurable value by improving stability and predictability in production.

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Core Simulation Capabilities (End-to-End Casting Workflow)

1) Filling Simulation (Flow behavior & process stability)

ProCAST simulates molten metal flow through runners, gates, vents, and cavities, helping engineers evaluate:

• Filling pattern stability and balance
• Risk of misruns, cold shuts, and incomplete fill
• Potential air entrainment and turbulence-driven issues
• Effect of gating size, runner design, and pour/sleeve conditions

Why it matters: Many downstream defects are caused by poor filling behavior. Accurate filling prediction helps you eliminate problems early, before solidification even begins.

2) Solidification Simulation (Thermal behavior & feeding logic)

Solidification modeling is the backbone of casting quality. ProCAST evaluates temperature fields and freezing progression to help optimize:

• Feeding path continuity and hot spot management
• Chill placement and insulation strategy
• Feeder sizing and sleeve selection
• Cooling channel design in permanent molds and dies

Engineering value: Better thermal control improves yield and reduces unpredictable defect formation.

3) Porosity & Defect Prediction (Quality-driven engineering)

ProCAST supports porosity prediction to identify high-risk regions and quantify defect sensitivity. Depending on your workflow and alloy/process, typical outcomes include:

• Shrinkage porosity (macro/micro)
• Gas porosity risk zones
• Defect drivers linked to gating and feeding design
• Quality maps that support design reviews and process sign-off

Why it matters: Porosity is one of the most expensive casting problems. Predicting it early helps reduce scrap, machining defects, pressure test failures, and warranty risk.

4) Residual Stress, Distortion & Dimensional Control

For many castings, geometry and metallurgy are only half the story—dimensional variation can cause expensive downstream issues. ProCAST supports prediction of:

• Residual stresses generated during solidification and cooling
• Distortion and deformation that impact machining and assembly
• Thermal effects that influence die life and repeatability

Production benefit: Improved dimensional stability reduces rework, scrap, and post-cast correction operations.

5) Microstructure & Material Property Indicators

For applications where mechanical performance matters (fatigue, strength, durability), ProCAST can support microstructure-related prediction workflows that help engineers understand how process conditions influence the final casting structure.

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Process Coverage (Sand, Die, Investment + More)

Sand Casting Simulation

ProCAST supports sand casting engineering decisions that directly impact yield and defect formation. Typical optimization targets include:

• Gating layout and feeder strategy
• Chills, insulation, and exothermic sleeves
• Thermal gradients and hot spot control
• Porosity reduction and yield improvement

Sand casting teams often use ProCAST to minimize redesign iterations and improve consistency in jobbing or high-mix environments.

Die Casting Simulation (HPDC / LPDC / Vacuum)

Die casting requires tight control of fast filling behavior, thermal cycling, and gas management. ProCAST helps evaluate critical process drivers such as:

• Runner balance and gating position
• Switching points, intensification, and sleeve/piston effects
• Vents, overflows, and vacuum influence
• Cycle thermal behavior, die temperature stability, and process windows

Why it matters: Die casting defects are often expensive because they appear late (during machining or leak testing). Simulation helps detect and avoid them early.

Investment Casting Simulation

Investment casting benefits from accurate thermal modeling and realistic mold behavior. ProCAST supports shell mold workflows and helps identify hot spots, shrinkage risk, and cooling behavior across complex tree geometries. This is especially valuable for high-temperature alloys and aerospace-grade casting requirements.

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ProCAST 2025.0 Workflow (How Engineers Use It)

Step 1: Import geometry and prepare the casting setup

• Import part geometry, mold, core, and die components
• Define casting process type and boundary conditions
• Set alloy, mold materials, initial temperatures, and process parameters

Step 2: Run filling and solidification simulation

• Evaluate flow paths and filling balance
• Identify turbulence/air entrapment risk
• Track freezing progression and thermal gradients

Step 3: Predict defects and optimize the design

• Detect porosity risk zones and hot spots
• Adjust feeders, chills, gates, and cooling strategy
• Repeat quickly to converge on a stable process window

Step 4: Validate dimensional control (optional advanced workflow)

• Estimate residual stress and distortion risk
• Reduce dimensional issues before tooling trials

Step 5: Document results for production sign-off

• Create reports, snapshots, and quality maps
• Support decision-making across engineering and production

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What’s New / Version Notes (ProCAST 2025.0)

ProCAST 2025.0 continues the platform direction of improving simulation productivity, industrial usability, and quality prediction workflows. In many organizations, upgrading to the latest release supports better stability and improved compatibility with modern workstations and daily engineering requirements.

Important note about release notes: The official ProCAST 2025.0 “new functions” list and detailed resolved issues are typically provided through the vendor’s customer portal (support/maintenance access). If you have access to the release notes PDF for 2025.0, you can share the headline bullet points and I can incorporate them into this description perfectly for SEO and sales pages.

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Bug Fixes & Stability Improvements

ProCAST 2025.0 is designed as a production-ready release with ongoing improvements in stability and usability. In real foundry engineering, stability matters just as much as new features—especially for long runs and multi-variant studies.

• Refinements for smoother day-to-day simulation workflow
• Improved reliability for complex projects and large meshes
• Better efficiency for iterative optimization studies

Best practice: standardize your engineering team on one build/version to keep simulation results consistent across projects and departments.

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System Requirements (Recommended Workstation Setup)

Simulation performance depends on mesh density, solver complexity, and whether stress/distortion and microstructure workflows are enabled. For professional foundry engineering, a modern workstation is recommended:

Component	Recommended for ProCAST 2025.0
Operating System	64-bit Windows workstation environment
CPU	Multi-core Intel/AMD processor (higher core count improves solver throughput)
RAM	16 GB+ (32 GB recommended for large models and heavy post-processing)
Storage	SSD recommended for faster load/save and results handling
Graphics (GPU)	Dedicated GPU recommended for smooth 3D viewing and post-processing

Hardware tip: If you run large multi-cavity die casting simulations or high-resolution porosity studies, increasing RAM and using fast SSD storage can noticeably improve productivity.

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Industries That Use ProCAST

• Automotive: structural parts, housings, powertrain components
• Aerospace: high-performance investment castings and critical alloy components
• Industrial machinery: complex housings and heavy castings
• Energy: valve bodies, pump components, heat-resistant castings
• Foundries and job shops: high-mix production requiring fast validation

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ROI: How ProCAST Helps Reduce Cost

Organizations typically adopt ProCAST to reduce the biggest cost drivers in casting:

• Scrap reduction: fewer defective castings reaching machining/inspection
• Trial reduction: less time spent on physical prototyping loops
• Yield improvement: optimized feeders and gating reduce wasted metal
• Shorter launch time: faster process approval and stable production ramp-up
• Knowledge capture: consistent engineering decisions across teams

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FAQ

What is ProCAST 2025.0 used for?

ProCAST 2025.0 is used for casting process simulation including filling, solidification, porosity prediction, and advanced quality validation (stress/distortion and microstructure workflows depending on configuration).

Which casting processes does ProCAST support?

ProCAST supports major processes such as sand casting, die casting (HPDC/LPDC/vacuum variants), and investment casting along with other process variations.

Can ProCAST predict shrinkage porosity?

Yes. ProCAST supports porosity prediction workflows used to anticipate shrinkage-related defects and optimize feeding strategy, chills, gating, and process parameters.

Is ProCAST suitable for production foundries?

Yes. ProCAST is designed for production use where repeatability, quality, and cost reduction matter—helping foundries move toward “first time right” outcomes.

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★★★★★ 5/5 — Powerful casting simulation that saves real production time

As a developer supporting foundry engineering workflows and CAE automation, I can say **ProCAST 2025.0** is one of the most reliable and production-focused **casting simulation software** solutions available. The strength of ProCAST is how well it predicts the full casting process—from **filling and solidification** to **porosity prediction**—so engineers can optimize gating, feeding, cooling strategy, and process parameters before running expensive trials. That directly reduces scrap, improves yield, and shortens launch timelines in real manufacturing environments.

For complex programs like **die casting**, **sand casting**, and **investment casting**, ProCAST delivers consistent results and high-quality visualization for faster decision-making. With advanced capabilities such as defect analysis and dimensional quality workflows (stress/distortion depending on setup), **ProCAST 2025.0** is a professional-grade tool for foundries that want repeatable, “first time right” outcomes and measurable ROI across engineering and production.