Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is filled into a mould, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mould to complete the process. Casting materials are usually metals or various time setting materials that vary depending on which casting process. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other manufacturing methods.
Centrifugal casting is generally used to manufacture pipes by pouring molten metal in to a rotating mould using centrifugal force to move the molten metal to outer of the mould. It can be used for other castings using semi-centrifugal casting.
Continuous casting also known as strand casting, is a process where molten metal is poured into chilled moulds and solidified into a semi-finished state such as a billet, bloom or slab. These billets, blooms or slabs are send to the finishing mills for rolling.
Die casting is a casting process that is characterised by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mould cavity. The mould cavity is created using two hardened tool steel dies which have been machined into shape and work.
Investment casting is an industrial process based on lost was casting, one of the oldest known metal forming techniques. The term "lost-wax casting" can also refer to modern investment casting processes.
During permanent mould casting, raw material is placed into the cavity of
a permanent mould. After the raw material has cooled and hardened, the
casting is removed from the mould cavity and the mould is then reused.
Resin casting is a method of resin casting where a a mould typically a silicone mould is filled with a a liquid synthetic resin which hardens. It is primarily used for small-scale production like industrial prototypes, dentistry and jewellery.
Sand casting, also known as sand moulding, is a metal casting process characterised by using sand as the mould material. Over 60% of all metal castings are produced via sand casting process.
Evaporative pattern casting is a sand casting process that uses foam to form a replica of an item in order to evaporate in a sand mould in replacement of molten metal. This casting process is also known as consumable, it is similar to investment casting.
Early Metal Casting
The Middle Ages