Casting metal is a skill widely used for industrial and personal reasons. This practice is vital to manufacturing materials ranging from military equipment to decoration pieces at home. There is a range of casting methods that one can choose from.
The most commonly used method of casting metal is sand casting. It offers a lot of versatility in terms of the products that can be manufactured using this method. The products made from sand casting can come in all shapes, sizes, and complexities. This method uses sand as mold material to shape the metal.
Other commonly used and popular forms of sand casting include die-casting and investment casting. The method you use depends on the product you are aiming to manufacture.
If you are still curious and want to dive deeper into the world of metal-casting, keep reading on.
What Is Casting?
Metal casting is pouring hot, molten metal into a mold or a frame of the desired shape. The melt cools and hardens, and you get the body you wanted to mold the metal into. This is an economical and relatively simple method of manufacturing metal products.
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What Are The Different Casting Methods To Choose From?
There is a wide variety of metal casting methods, and you can pick the best method that suits your need. The methods are divided into two broad categories; casting using reusable and non-reusable molds.
What Is Reusable Casting?
In this method, the mold that you used for casting can be used over and over again. Some examples of this method include;
Die Casting Using Reusable Molds
In this process, metal is forced, under high pressure, into a casting mold. This is typically done using an injection to force the metal into the vacuum. This practice is most commonly used for mass production in industries. Its products are durable and stable.
Pressure Casting Using Reusable Molds
In this practice, forces other than gravity force the molten metal into the mold. These forces include; air, gas, centrifugal forces, etc. This practice is also most commonly used for industrial reasons.
How Is Expendable Mold Casting DIfferent?
Here, the mold or the frame can only be used once and is often discarded after use. Some common examples are;
Sand Casting Using Expendable Sand Molds
As mentioned above, this is the most common and primitive casting method. It is straightforward, economical, and efficient, contributing to its popularity. In this practice, a simple sand mold is used to provide shape to metal. It is used to make products ranging from car parts to decoration pieces.
Investment Casting Is Used As An Alternative To Sand Casting
This method comes in handy where sand casting falls short. Here, wax or similar material is used and later melted off and discarded. This method provides more precision and intricacy than sand casting.
Conclusion
Although the world of metal casting has a range of methods to choose from, the process you pick depends on the product and the scale of production. Even so, sand casting is the most commonly used method because of its simplicity, efficiency, and cheapness.
