What is Die Casting and Its Types?
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What is Die Casting and Its Types?

Casting is most commonly used to create complex shapes that would otherwise be difficult or uneconomical to make using other methods. Metal casting processes have been known for thousands of years, and have been widely used for creating sculptures, jewelry, transportation, weapons, and tools.
Published: Apr 25, 2022
What is Die Casting and Its Types?

What is casting?

Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold that contains a cavity of the desired shape and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as the casting, which is ejected or broken from the mold to complete the process. It has a wide range of applications in industrial manufacturing and in the automotive and aerospace industries.

The basic metal casting process involves creating a pattern and a mold, then pouring molten metal into the mold. You will then extract the solid metal casting and finish your piece. This process can be customized for casting different types of metals into various shapes and sizes of products.

Types of casting

  1. Sand casting
  2. Sand casting, also known as sand molded casting, is a process of creating a mold out of sand that;incorporate a pattern into sand along in a gating system to guide the molten metal into the mold cavity. The metal is allowed to cool and then the sand is broken away from the casting to retrieve the final product. The sand used is usually made of silicon-based materials, such as synthetic sand or natural sand. Foundry sand usually consists of finely ground spherical particles that can be tightly packed together to form a smooth surface. Sand can also be strengthened by adding clay to help the particles bind more tightly. The sand allows for some degree of flexibility, to reduce the likelihood of cracking or other defects that could result from shrinkage during the cooling stage of the process.

    Advantage:

    Low mold cost

    Wide range of uses

    Ideal for making complex shapes, especially those with internal cavities

    Disadvantage:

    The finished product has low precision

    Rough surface of casting

    High cost of cleaning and processing

    Application: It is often used to make crankshafts, cylinder heads and castings of automobile engine blocks.

  3. Lost wax casting
  4. Lost wax casting, also known as investment casting, uses a disposable wax mold which is coated with a ceramic material that hardens around the wax mold into the shape of the casting. Once the ceramic solidifies, the casting is heated to melt the wax and the wax is drained from the mold. Molten metal is them poured into the cavity. Once the metal solidifies, the casting is broken away from the casted metal part.

    Advantage:

    High dimensional accuracy

    Good surface finish

    Parting lines are barely visible

    Ability to create intricate shapes

    Reduces post-casting processing costs

    Disadvantage:

    High production cost

    Each mold can only be used for one casting

    Castings are limited in size

    Application: Commonly used to produce small parts with complex shapes, such as turbine engine blades.

  5. Vacuum die casting
  6. Vacuum die casting is mainly used to cast high-strength, corrosion-resistant aluminum bronze. By controlling the vacuum, the pressure differential between the mold cavity and the molten metal can be varied, allowing for different fill rates required by part design and pouring requirements. Tight control of the fill rate can enhance casting stability. With proper part, mold design, and vacuum processing, voids, shrinkage, and air pockets in critical areas can also be greatly reduced or eliminated. Because the sprue is submerged under the surface of the molten metal, only pure alloy free of oxides and slag can enter the cavity, which helps produce clean, sound castings.

    Advantages:

    Good surface finish

    High dimensionally accurate parts

    Reduces voids and air bubbles in die castings

    Disadvantages:

    Higher cost compared to die casting

    Appropriate controls are required to produce the desired results

    Application: This casting method is commonly used in the automotive industry, especially for chassis forming.

  7. Die casting
  8. Die casting is a method of forming materials under high pressure. Usually a two-piece mold is used. The mold is coated with a non-stick material before casting so that the mold can be separated from the casted item and reused multiple times. Die casting therefore is limited to products that can be removed from the mold without destroying the mold, as is done in other casting processes. Metals usually used are non-ferrous metals and alloys such as zinc, tin, copper and aluminum.

    Advantage:

    Tight dimensions and tolerances

    Reduced post-processing such as machining

    High dimensional consistency of manufactured parts

    High quality castings

    Disadvantage:

    High mold cost

    Long delivery time

    Die castings have low plasticity

    Not all metal alloys can be die cast

    Applications: Die casting technology is usually used in the automotive, machine tool, and electronics industries.

  9. Lost foam casting
  10. Lost foam casting is a process where ceramic material is coated around a polystyrene pattern to form a hard-shell mold. The polystyrene remains in the mold, and as molten metal is poured into the mold, heat from the metal vaporizes the polystyrene. The polystyrene vapor leaves the mold through the permeable walls of the ceramic mold. Although it is not as widely used as other processes, lost foam casting offers advantages for making intricate patterns to create a completely model-free casting that is not feasible with other processes.

    Advantage:

    Very complex products can be cast

    High precision

    Very smooth surfaces

    More environmentally friendly

    Short processing cycle

    Disadvantage:

    High cost of making patterns

    Easily damaged or deformed

    Application: Commonly used to make fire hydrants, valves, cylinder blocks, motor starters, etc.

  11. Continuous casting
  12. Continuous casting, also called strand casting, is a casting process used for continuous mass production of metal items requiring consistency of the materials cross-section properties.

    During the process, molten metal flows into and gradually passes through a casting machine which rapidly cools the metal to ensure that the solidified metal has a fine, uniform grain structure. After solidification, the cast bar is cut to desired lengths.

    Advantage:

    Capable of producing high quality metal

    Promotes the production of standardized steel castings

    Mechanized operation can reduce labor costs

    Casting size and structure are easy to control

    Disadvantage:

    Only simple castings can be produced

    Continuous cooling is required throughout the process

    High investment cost

    Requires a larger footprint

    Applications: The most common continuous casting shapes in production are tubular and solid, but other shapes can also be produced, such as square, rectangular, hexagonal and other irregular shapes.


Published by Apr 25, 2022 Source :My Beauty Note

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