Metal Casting Zone Info Blog

Posts Tagged ‘metal castings’

Show the process of me doing metal castings from recycled aluminum for geodesic dome hubs. The hubs allow one to make a dome with a diameter of 4 feet up to 20 feet.

This video explains the full process of Rapid Prototyping at Prometal-RCT.

Starting from Ingate Design, Cores and Molds Printing using Prometal RCT printer, Assembly of mold package, casting and inspection of the parts.

ProMetal RCT™ printers selectively dispense micro–droplets of specially-engineered binder into paper–thin layers of foundry-grade sand. This additive process creates complex sandcasting cores & molds direct from CAD data, eliminating the need of a physical pattern to create a core or mold. The process produces extremely accurate, uniform cores and molds rapidly, reducing significantly the lead time for metal castings.

ProMetal RCT offers completes systems as well as contract services.

More information on www.prometal-rct.com

Basic Knowledge of Metal Casting

Metal casting has been widely used in our residential and industrial fields. Casting is the foundation of modern machinery manufacturing industry.

Casting process is to pour the melted metal into the mold, after the solidification by cooling, to get the curtain shape, size and performance of metal castings.

In 513 BC, we found the world’s oldest iron casting – Cast Jin Ding, weighing about 270 kg. Europe began the production of cast iron around the eighth century AD. The emergence of cast iron expanded the application range of metal castings. For example, in the 15th to 17th Century, Germany, France and other countries have laid cast iron pipes to the residents drinking water. After the industrial revolution in 18th century, steam engines, textile machines, railways and other industries have developed very fast, so iron casting developed into a new period of industrial services for large industries. The casting technology began to have great development.

In 20th century, the development of casting is very fast, one important factor is the product of new technology, requires better casting with a variety of mechanical and physical properties, while still have good machining properties; Another reason is the mechanical industry itself and other industries such as chemicals, instruments and other development, all these factors created a favorable material conditions for the foundry industry. Such as the detection devices, to ensure the casting quality improvement and stability, and to provide the condition to the casting theory development. The invention of electronic microscope helped people to deep into the metal of the microscopic world, exploration of metal crystal mystery.

During this period, there was large development for various metal castings with superior performance, such as ductile iron, malleable welded cast iron, low carbon stainless steel, aluminum, copper, aluminum, aluminum-magnesium alloy, titanium-based, nickel-based alloys , and the invention of the gray cast iron inoculation of new technology, so that metal casting has a wider adaptability.

After middle of 20th century, there was high pressure molding with wet sand, chemical hardening sand molding and core making, molding and other special vacuum casting, shot blasting and other new technology to make castings with high shape, dimensional accuracy and good surface finish, foundry working conditions and environmental health is also greatly improved.

Since the 20th century, for foundry industry, gray iron inoculation treatment and chemical hardening sand molding process have two new special significance. These two inventions has broken the traditional methods for thousands of years, and has opened up new areas to improve the competitiveness of the casting.

Casting generally is divided into ordinary and special castings. Ordinary sand casting, including wet sand, dry sand, chemical hardening sand categories. Special casting material according to the different shapes can be divided into two categories: natural sand and gravel as the main form of mineral materials, such as investment casting, shell casting, vacuum casting, clay-type casting, solid casting, ceramics casting, etc.; a class of metal as the main mold material, such as metal casting, centrifugal casting, continuous casting, pressure casting, low pressure casting.

Casting process can be divided into three basic parts, namely, preparation of metal casting, mold preparation and casting processing. Metal casting is the production of metal castings for the cast, which is a metallic element as the main ingredient, and adding other metals or non-metallic elements and the composition of the alloy, traditionally known as the casting alloy, there are cast iron, Steel and cast non-ferrous alloys.

After the cooling, the castings have to be removed for the gate, riser and metal burrs, so the clean-up process is necessary. Equipments for such work are shot blasting machines, gate riser cutting machines. Some castings for special requirements have to be treated by post-casting processing, such as heat treatment, plastic surgery, anti-rust treatment, rough machining and so on.

Casting is an economical method of rough shape, complex shape parts for more demonstrated its economy. Such as automotive engine block and cylinder head, ship propellers and exquisite works of art. Somewhat difficult to cut the parts, such as nickel-based alloy gas turbine parts can not be formed without casting method.

In addition, the casting of the part size and weight to adapt to a wide range of metal species is almost unlimited; parts in the mechanical properties in general also has the wear and corrosion resistance, shock-absorbing and comprehensive performance. Sometimes, you can not get those characters by other metal forming methods such as forging, rolling, welding and punching, etc. So casting methods used in the machine manufacturing industry produced rough parts, in the number and tonnage thus far is the greatest.

Casting product development trend is to ask the cast a better overall performance, higher accuracy, less margin and more smooth surface. In addition, energy requirements and restore the natural environment of the community are increasingly vocal. To meet these requirements, the new cast alloy will be developed, refining new processes and new equipment will accordingly appear.

With the continuous improvement of the electronics and test methods, foundry workers will have deeper research for the metal crystals and in-depth exploration, to improve casting performance and internal quality. Robotics and computer will also become very popular in the field of casting production and management applications. Metal castings will have a better development and wider applications in the future.

This article was from Dandong Foundry Blog.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Modern Casting, published by American Foundry Society, Inc. on November 1, 2008. The length of the article is 2401 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Supplier’s online.(Metal castings industry)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: Modern Casting (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2008
Publisher: American Foundry Society, Inc.
Volume: 98 Issue: 11 Page: BG5(4)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning

Supplier’s online.: An article from: Modern Casting

Hello,

Here we are on day three, ready to learn about Lost Wax Casting.

Lost Wax Casting is an ancient technique that has been used to
create very complicated metal castings and involved pieces that
would other wise be impossible either because of economic reasons
or manufacturing reasons. Everyone from small jewelers to large
industrial foundries can use Lost Wax Casting. This process is also
called Investment Casting when it is used in commercial industries.
While jewelry makers are the primary ones to use the Lost Wax Casting,
many others use it to achieve a number aims and goals.

Lost Wax Casting is the ideal and preferred method for artists who
are interested in making items like sculptures or rings from a
variety of alloys like bronze, steel, or copper. This process is q
uite involved but not all that complex as long as you have some kind
of metal casting know-how. For anyone wanting to experiment with
different casting methods Lost Wax Casting is a great option because
it involves a few materials and methods that are not normally
found in other methods like Sand Casting.

The most noticeable difference of Lost Wax Casting from other
castings is exactly what’s in the name; the wax. To use Lost Wax
Casting you do not necessarily have to be an artists but some skill
in sculpting might be nice. You are going to start off by creating
a sculpture from wax that will be the original.

You will then create a mold of the original. The mold is usually
created from plaster with latex lining to help preserve the details
of the original. If this is your first attempt at Lost Wax Casting
you may want to make an original without a lot of detail just to
get the feel for the entire process and so you do not become
discouraged if something does not work out. Remember metal casting
is a skill that must be learned by research, trial, and error.
Chances are that you will not be completely successful, the first
time around. The original piece is usually lost after the construction
of the mold. This is normal and if you do want to prevent this from
happening you can create the original from material other then wax
like a metal alloy.

When the mold is ready you are then going to pour molten wax,
you’re not ready for metal just yet, into the mold. The amount
of wax needed for this step depends on the desired thickness.
Once the copy is ready, you are going to remove it very carefully
from the mold. You will remove any of the impurities from the copy.
This is called chasing.

You will then sprue the copy. Spruing is the act of carefully
placing paths that will let the molten metal in and air out.
Afterwards, a ceramic shell is created around the copy. The shell
isn’t really ceramic but a combination of liquid silica and sand.
Traditionally, and in some areas still, animal dung and dirt is
used to create the shell. The choice of which shell material you
want to use is up to you. The shell is hardened in the kiln and
the wax melts out. If you want to reuse the wax then collect it
during this step. Wax can be reused a number of times and if you
are on a budget or are just trying out different designs and methods,
collecting the wax is encouraged. Once the wax is gone and all that
remains is the hollow shell you will want to run water through it
to make sure there are no leaks. If there are then you will need to
patch them before pouring the molten metal.

You are going to want to reheat the shell before pouring the metal
to avoid shattering the shell. The shell is still on the sprue tree
so pouring the metal is an easy process. When the metal has hardened,
then break the shell carefully and remove the cast. Afterwards, it
is up to you to finish the piece to your liking and preference.

The Lost Wax Casting process is an enjoyable experience but it does
use a few tools that you might need to purchase before hand, like
the wax and spruing tree. At the very least, you might want to try
Lost Wax Casting once or twice to get a feel for it. This way you
have another casting process at your disposal.

Here is a link to a Web Page that covers this E-Course Email:
http://www.metalcastingzone.com/lost-wax-casting/

P.S.
There is more…If you sign up as a member of Metal Casting Zone, you
will get special access to 2 Free eBooks on the site. Both of the eBooks
are about Metal Casting Basics.  Here is the best part, becoming a member is Free!
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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Modern Casting, published by American Foundrymen’s Society, Inc. on June 1, 1989. The length of the article is 822 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: How to use hot-pressed cutoff wheels. (metal castings industry) (column)
Author: John G. Wagner
Publication: Modern Casting (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 1989
Publisher: American Foundrymen’s Society, Inc.
Volume: v79 Issue: n6 Page: p58(1)

Article Type: column

Distributed by Thomson Gale

How to use hot-pressed cutoff wheels. : An article from: Modern Casting