Metal Casting | Steel Molding

Metal casting process:

Definition:

“Casting (or) Foundry is a process of forming objects by putting molten metal in mold’s and letting to solidify.”

Examples:

Cameras, Carburetors, Engine Blocks, Crankshafts, Automotive Components, Agricultural Equipments, Road Equipments, and Pipes.

Advantages and Uses of Casting:

1. The most intricate of shapes, both External and Internal may be cast. As a result many other operations, such as Machining, Forging, and Welding can be minimized or eliminated.

2. Extremely large, heavy metal objects may be cast when they would be difficult or economically impossible to produce otherwise. Large pump housing, Valves, and Hydroelectric Plant Parts weighing up to 200 Tons illustrate this advantage of the casting process.

3. Because of their physical properties, some metals can only be cast to shape since they cannot be hot-worked into bars, rods, plates or other shapes from ingot form as a preliminary to other processing.

4. Construction may be simplified. Objects may be cast in a single piece which would otherwise require assembly of several pieces if made by other methods.

5. Metal casting is a process highly adaptable to the requirements of mass production. Large numbers of a given casting may be produced very rapidly. For example in the automotive industry hundreds of thousands of cast engine blocks and transmission cases are produced each year.

6. Casting has certain characteristic metallurgical, physical and economical advantage over other methods of metal processing.

7. This is the cheapest method to produce different shapes in metals.

8. Castings do not exhibit directional properties shown by the metal working processes. Their strength in all directions is same.

9. Good bearing qualities are obtained in casting metals.

10. Practically all metals can be cast.

Types of Castings:

It divided into six classes:

1. Grey cast iron

2. Alloy cast iron

3. Malleable cast iron

4. Steel cast iron

5. Alloy steel cast iron

6. Non ferrous castings

Properties of Casting:

1. High fluidity

2. Low shrinkage

3. Low affinity for absorbing Gas

4. Low stresses

5. Uniform strength