processingdetails

Casting

Metal casting, the history of if can date back to 6000 year before. The oldest surviving casting is a copper frog from 3200 BC. It is a process whereby molten metal is poured into a mold, 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 mold to complete the process. The cast metal remains in the mold until it has solidified. Single molds produce only metal casting and are typically used for small productions runs. Multiple use molds are used for large production runs of metal castings. Multi-use molds are more expensive, but will withstand repeated use. The type mold to be used for metal casting is dependant upon the finished product. For example, some molds are capable of producing more intricate metal casting parts than others and some can produce parts more economically, while some molds can produce only one metal casting, and others can produce many metal castings from a single mold. Metal casting is performed be metal casters.

Casting materials are usually metals or various cold setting materials that cure after mixing two or more components together; examples are epoxy, concrete, plaster and clay. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods.