Engineering practice is an important component of implementing engineering education in universities, and it is also an important carrier for universities to cultivate outstanding engineering talents. The continuous progress and development of society and industry have put forward higher requirements for the cultivation of innovative engineering talents’ abilities and qualities. The traditional teaching content of metalworking practical training is no longer suitable for the demand of talents in the current society’s new technologies and changes, and teaching reform is imperative. Focusing on improving the quality of talent cultivation, continuously deepening educational and teaching reforms. The Engineering Practice Teaching Department undertakes practical teaching tasks such as metalworking internship, CNC internship, electrical and electronic internship, and virtual simulation in various colleges of our school. It is an important carrier for our school to achieve engineering education and also shoulders the important task of cultivating comprehensive talents. As an important component of engineering practice teaching, metalworking training covers multiple training contents such as turning, milling, casting, and CNC machining. Casting training is an important training project for hot processing in metalworking training. The original casting training content was manual wet sand casting. The Engineering Practice Teaching Department has improved the content and mode of casting training by offering investment casting precision casting training projects, enhancing the quality of casting training teaching, strengthening students’ learning interest, stimulating their innovative consciousness, and improving their engineering practice ability, thereby meeting the demand for outstanding engineering talents in modern society. The implementation of this practical training is of great significance for talent cultivation and improving the social competitiveness of our school’s students.
The casting training of the Engineering Practice Teaching Department has always been carried out through manual wet sand casting projects for practical teaching. The course includes teaching of casting theory, hands-on demonstration of wet sand casting by teachers, manual production of sand molds by students, metal melting, and pouring. Casting training has set up different training modules from simple to difficult according to the different majors of students, in order to meet the needs of different students. The original casting training mainly had the following problems: sand casting training includes three manual molding methods: whole mold, split mold, and sand excavation. According to the difficulty level of the modeling method, different practical training modules are set up in the course. The Engineering Practice Teaching Department provides basic integrated modeling training for non mechanical students. For students majoring in computer science, teachers will increase the difficulty and depth of practical training according to different majors and training durations, and arrange for students to engage in whole mold modeling+split mold modeling, and whole mold modeling Modular modeling+split modeling+sand excavation modeling practical training, to meet the practical training needs of students in various majors and achieve hierarchical teaching. However, in practical teaching, because there is only one shape for each molding method, students cannot make independent choices about the shape, and cannot design personalized and diversified shapes. This leads to low interest in participating in practice and difficulty in improving their enthusiasm and creativity in casting training. Although the manual sand casting training includes the entire process of metal melting, sand mold making, and pouring molding, the teacher’s teaching thinking is relatively fixed and the teaching methods are single during the training teaching process. There are no processes such as product design and finished product finishing, nor are there team discussions, mutual assistance and cooperation. The training cannot replicate the engineering practice teaching because it has the advantages of wide professional coverage and a large number of beneficiary students. It is a natural platform for carrying out ideological and political courses.
Manual sand casting is the fundamental process of sand casting and plays an important role in casting training. Therefore, in response to the problems existing in the above-mentioned casting training projects, by drawing on the casting training of other universities and combining with the actual situation of our university’s engineering practice teaching department, our university’s casting training retains the original manual wet sand casting training and offers an investment casting precision casting training project that combines investment casting technology and 3D printing technology. In the investment casting precision casting training project, a pattern design stage is set up. Use 3D drawing software to present personalized ideas in the form of 3D graphics. The appearance design process provides students with ample space for self-expression, allowing them to experience the joy of independent innovation. While enhancing students’ participation in practical activities, it also cultivates their innovative consciousness and ability. The practical teaching of investment casting precision casting has changed the original sand casting During the practical training process, the teaching mode of teachers explaining and demonstrating, and students imitating and operating, which is somewhat rigid, includes multiple training contents such as pattern design, pattern production, wax mold production, and metal forming, which are closely related to factory production actual.
The training course of investment casting precision casting is introduced by a video introducing the historical cultural relic “Bronze Ice Mirror” in China. The teacher leads students to experience the spirit of craftsmanship in a great country through video explanations. After the introduction of the investment casting precision casting training program in the casting training, the enthusiasm for casting training has significantly increased, and the design of students’ training works has become more diverse. The specific achievements of teaching reform are as follows: firstly, the enthusiasm and innovation ability of casting practice have been improved to a certain extent. The establishment of the investment casting precision casting training project has expanded the content of casting training to include two types: traditional sand casting and special casting, enriching the teaching content of casting training. Different from the single pattern used in sand casting, the pattern used in investment casting is designed and made by students independently. In the process of pattern design, software can be used to design pattern graphics based on personal interests, professional expertise, etc. This process not only exercises the drawing ability, but also stimulates imagination and innovation ability, and improves students’ enthusiasm for participating in casting training. During the casting training process, both manual sand casting and investment casting precision casting are carried out simultaneously. As a fundamental process in casting, manual sand casting plays an important role in casting training. The dimensional accuracy of casting products is relatively low. As a special casting process, investment casting has high dimensional accuracy for castings.