Citation: Duˇci´c, N.; Manasijevi´c, S.;
Joviˇci´c, A.;
´
Cojbaši´c, Ž.; Radiša, R.
Casting Process Improvement by the
Application of Artificial Intelligence.
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 3264. https://
doi.org/10.3390/app12073264
Academic Editor: Laurens
Katgerman
Received: 7 February 2022
Accepted: 11 March 2022
Published: 23 March 2022
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4.0/).
Review
Casting Process Improvement by the Application of
Artificial Intelligence
Nedeljko Duˇci´c
1
, Sre´cko Manasijevi´c
2
, Aleksandar Joviˇci´c
1,
*, Žarko
´
Cojbaši´c
3
and Radomir Radiša
2
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences Cacak, University of Kragujevac, Svetog Save 65, 32102 Cacak, Serbia;
nedeljko.ducic@ftn.kg.ac.rs
2
Research and Development Institute Lola Ltd., 70A Kneza Višeslava, 11030 Belgrade, Serbia;
srecko.manasijevic@li.rs (S.M.); radomir.radisa@li.rs (R.R.)
3
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nis, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14, 18000 Nis, Serbia;
zcojba@ni.ac.rs
* Correspondence: aleksandar.jovicic@ftn.kg.ac.rs
Abstract:
On the way to building smart factories as the vision of Industry 4.0, the casting process
stands out as a specific manufacturing process due to its diversity and complexity. One of the
segments of smart foundry design is the application of artificial intelligence in the improvement of
the casting process. This paper presents an overview of the conducted research studies, which deal
with the application of artificial intelligence in the improvement of the casting process. In the review,
37 studies were analyzed over the last 15 years, with a clear indication of the type of casting process,
the field of application of artificial intelligence techniques, and the benefits that artificial intelligence
brought. The goals of this paper are to bring to attention the great possibilities of the application of
artificial intelligence for the improvement of manufacturing processes in foundries, and to encourage
new ideas among researchers and engineers.
Keywords: casting process; artificial intelligence; improvement; intelligent casting
1. Introduction
The production of metal parts by a casting process is a very old manufacturing process,
the basic principles of which have remained unchanged up until now. Thus, scientific
research on the mentioned manufacturing process has been constantly expanding. As a
result, numerous casting processes—as well as materials that are successfully processed by
the casting process—have been developed. Metal casting products are present in all spheres
of human life, from small bolts to components with various dimensions and complexity for
military systems and aircraft. This is why the casting industry has become diversified, and
therefore often specialized for the manufacturing of particular types of casting parts.
Nowadays, science and technology’s development has lead us to what is called Indus-
try 4.0, which actually represents a new wave of automation development in manufacturing,
based on technologies such as automation, data exchanges, artificial intelligence (AI), the
cloud, cyber-physical systems, robots, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT),
etc. What does Industry 4.0 specifically mean for the casting process? If we consider
Industry 4.0 as one set and the casting process as the other set, the cross-section of these
two sets is the smart foundry. Smart foundries imply a centralized system of customer
order management, supply chains, and manufacturing activities. Part of such a central-
ized system is remote monitoring and the control of machines and robotic systems in the
foundry, based on cloud principles. One part of such a system is expert systems—based
on artificial intelligence—that make decisions, optimize the design of casting systems, and
define recipes (e.g., the molten metal, the sand mixture for the mold, etc.). The road to
the realization of the smart foundry concept involves debt, and requires a workforce that
values its importance and can accept the monitoring of the technological progress.
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 3264. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12073264 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
