Casting Simulation Engineer

Overview

Founded in 1957, Superior Industries has grown to become one of the world's largest light vehicle aluminum wheel suppliers. Headquartered in Southfield, MI, Superior operates nine manufacturing facilities and employs approximately 8,000 people in North America and Europe. For over 60 years, they have delivered innovative and quality products. Superior has the expertise and technology to deliver the latest trends and finish varieties.

In 2017, Superior Industries completed the acquisition of UNIWHEELS in Germany. This transformational acquisition doubled the size of the company and diversified the customer portfolio. With a #1 market position in North America and #3 in Europe, Superior plans to continue to expand its global capabilities and market leadership.

The Casting Simulation Engineer will conduct casting simulations of the mold and cast geometry to validate the casting design and the mold cooling system prior to fabricating mold tooling. This position will use the Magma Low Pressure simulation tools to analyze mold filling, casting solidification, identify potential defects, evaluate mold tool design parameters, and suggest countermeasures to improve mold designs and to mitigate potential casting defects.

This employee will interact with foundry process engineers in four manufacturing plants in Mexico and three plants in Poland. This position will also interact directly with Product Development engineers to help refine the casting geometry via simulation and to define areas of special interest in the casting relative to the casting process. Casting simulations are intended to identify potential defect issues and provide a starting point for casting process development by the foundry process engineers.

This position will also work with the plant foundries to gather casting data which will be used to refine simulation accuracy.

Reports to:

Director of Product Engineering

• Perform casting simulation analysis using the Magma Low Pressure Casting Simulation tools on new or existing low pressure permanent mold aluminum wheels.
• Present Magma simulation results in meaningful ways to help the Foundry Process engineers, Mold Design engineers, and the Product Development engineers work together to develop castings and mold tools that will produce high-quality, sound castings.
• Communicate casting simulation results through regular weekly meetings with the plant foundry teams.
• Generate reports to document each iteration of the simulation process to serve as a data reference for the Process and Product engineering teams.
• Conduct correlation studies between computer simulations and actual foundry casting performance to improve simulation predictions.

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
• Minimum of 3 years of direct experience with CAE and casting simulation (especially cast aluminum)
• Experience with 3D CAD design software
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Thorough understanding of metal casting physics including heat transfer and molten metal flow
• Understanding of casting defects and the underlying causes of casting defects
• Basic understanding of materials science and aluminum microstructure
• Finite Element Analysis basic knowledge
• Casting Simulation using Magma Soft, Pro Cast, EKK, or Flow-3D
• Knowledge of low-pressure casting processes, particularly aluminum casting
• 3D CAD Design Software (Siemens NX, Catia, Solid Works, Inventor, etc.)