Casting is a manufacturing process that generally involves pouring a liquid material into a specific mold that has specially shaped cavities inside. After the liquid is poured into the mold, it is allowed to cool down to form a new part. Casting is particularly well suited to the mass production of parts. From the production of a toy part to aerospace components, casting is involved in many industries. Today, Engravertool will take a look at some of the most common casting processes!
It is important to note here that while the most common casting material you will see is metal casting, there are actually many materials other than metal casting that can be used for casting. Common materials include alloys, plastics, rubber, and even glass can be used for casting.
1. Sand casting
Sand casting means that sand is used in the casting process to make a model. You may feel strange, how can sand be made into a solid mold when it looks so badly shaped? But in fact, there are some differences between the sand used to make molds and the sand we can see in our daily life. The sand used for casting is made from silica mixed with a specialized chemical binder. Since this material is very cheap, many businessmen will choose this method. And making molds out of sand can also be used to shape alloys or metals that have a higher melting point. And very often, those metals with higher melting points can only be cast by this method of sand casting. The more common metal products in our daily life, such as barbecue grills, engines and so on are very likely to be made by this method.
2. Metal die-casting
As mentioned above, sand casting is suitable for some metals or alloys with higher melting points. Then metal die casting is more suitable for some lower melting point metal. Specific operation steps are as follows: you first will cast the metal you want to melt heat, and then slowly pour the metal liquid into the die casting mold. This die casting mold is more special, it is made of hardened steel, so its applicable life is longer.
Currently, metal die casting is divided into two broad categories. The first is the hot chamber process, which refers to the fact that the machine in which the casting takes place has a device right inside it that is used to heat the metal. The other is the cold chamber process, where the metal needs to be melted separately before it is poured into the cold chamber.
Metal die casting technology can be used to make some parts in electronics and furniture.
3. Lost wax casting
The lost wax casting method is where you use wax to make molds for metal parts. And the lost wax casting method can be divided into two kinds, one is the direct method, that is, the wax mold you make is directly used to cast metal. Another is the indirect method, which is to take the wax mold made in advance and then make it into a mold made of another material, so that this mold can be recycled.
The actual procedure of the lost wax casting method is roughly as follows:
Start by making a model out of wax and try to make this model as close as possible to what you ultimately want the metal parts to look like.
If you want to make a metal mold using the indirect method, you will need to make a wax model. Since this process involves a lot of specialized details, you can go to the internet and search for related videos to learn more about the specialty.
Choose your ideal material and melt it. Note that some alloys have a high melting point. You may then need to use a machine that specializes in melting metals. Of course, you can choose some versatile metal casting machines that come with their own furnace for melting metal.
Take the wax mold you made (or a mold made of something else if you're using the indirect method) and wrap it in plaster or some other material. Then place an entire mold into a hot furnace until the wax inside is completely melted.
Pour the finished melted metal into the cavity of the mold you just made. The temperature of the metal is very high when it is in the molten state, so it's a good idea to have some safety gear, such as goggles, on hand to keep you safe.
Wait long enough until you are sure that the metal has completely solidified before removing the metal part. If you find that there are some imperfections on the metal part, you can also do some simple processing such as simple engraving or polishing.
4. High-pressure casting
High pressure die casting is actually not very different from the normal casting method. During the actual operation, all you need to do is to pour the metal in a molten state into a specific mold under a specific pressure environment. This produces a metal part that is free of flaws and is also capable of being produced in large quantities. However, you need to make sure that the pressure parameters of the environment you are setting are correct. This method of high pressure casting is great for making circuit boards as well as automotive parts, among others.
5. Centrifugal casting
Centrifugal casting refers to the pouring of molten metal into a tubular mold, which is rotating all the time during the actual operation. Therefore, centrifugal casting is mostly used to make some pipes or wheels, and is not suitable for making metal parts with complex shapes.
