Metal casting is a process that brings a wealth of benefits across a wide range of industries such as automotive, gas, aeronautics, food equipment, and so on. It is a cost-efficient process that can help businesses get their parts exactly as presented on their blueprint plants.
To make our case on why metal casting is so popular, we have made a list of all the great things to expect from metal casting.
Free From Restrictions
Metal casting is a process that is pretty much free from restrictions of shape and thickness of castings, size, level of complexity, and so on. The casting wall can range from 0.3 to 1000mm, while its length can go from just a few millimeters to over ten meters.
Metal casting is very popular for the production of parts in virtually all shapes featuring complex cavity such as engine cylinder, impeller, valve, propeller, and so on.
Available Materials
There is a wide selection of available materials that can be melted and used for casting. The material can be steel, iron alloy, copper alloy, platinum alloy, aluminum alloy, and so on. For many brittle alloy materials such as cast iron featuring low plasticity, there is no other forming process but casting.
In practice, cast iron is the single most used material in the world as it accounts for more than 2/3rd of all output.
Superior to Sand Casting
On average, metal casting produces 25% higher tensile strength compared with sand casting. However, in addition to higher mechanical properties, metal casting features increased yield strength for around 20%. Furthermore, hardness and corrosion resistance are vastly improved.
Little or no sand is used, and in most cases, 80 to 100% of the molding material is salvaged.
Last but not least, compared to sand casting, liquid metal consumption in metal casting can potentially generate savings of up to 30%.
High Production Efficiency
Metal casting offers excellent production efficiency as the cause of defects is minimized. For an experienced crew, automation and mechanization are easily realized, which make the entire process efficient and, to some extent, even a routine.
Low Production Cost
Compared to other forming methods, its main economic parameters suggest a low production cost. Metal and energy consumption are just two areas in which material casting stands out.
On average, manufacturing cost ranges from 25 to 30% of the overall machine cost.
Other factors that contribute to its low cost include:
- Old metal and waste can be easily reused
- Thanks to mechanized production, mass production can be easily organized and set up.
- Metal casting uses way less power than other forming processes such as forging.
Variable Weight Ranges
Metal Casting can be used for creating products that weigh just a few grams or large ones that are measured in tons. That flexibility means no job is too small or too big.
In Conclusion
There are many reasons why metal casting is such a popular forming process. Many of those reasons are listed above and should be considered as rock-solid arguments backed with facts. Your only concern should be whether you’ve hired someone with the experience and extensive knowledge of metal casting or not. If you got that covered, just let them do your magic, and trust the process.
