Casting

Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material

is usually 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. Casting
materials are usually metals or various time 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. Cast iron casting
Heavy equipment like machine tool beds, ships' propellers,
etc. can be cast easily in the required size, rather than
fabricating by joining several small pieces.[1]

Casting is a 7,000-year-old process. The oldest surviving casting is a copper frog from 3200 BC.[2]

Contents
History
Types
Metal
Plaster, concrete, or plastic resin
Fettling
Casting process simulation
See also
References
Further reading

History
Throughout history, metal casting has been used to make tools, weapons, and religious objects.
Metal casting history and development can be traced back to Southern Asia (China, India,
Pakistan, etc). [3] Southern Asia traditions and religions relied heavily on statue and relic
castings.[4] These items were frequently made from a copper alloy laced with lead.[5] Since the
beginning of metallurgy the majority of castings were simple one to two piece molds fashioned
from either stone or ceramics. However, there is evidence of lost wax castings in numerous ancient
civilizations.[4]

Early civilizations discovered lead aided in the fluidity of molten copper, allowing them to cast
more intricate designs. For example, the dancing girl of Mohenjo-daro is a copper alloy casting
that most likely utilizes the lost wax technique.[4] Lost wax casting can be dated back to 4000 BC
or the Chalcolithic period.[4] One of the oldest studied examples of this technique is a 6,000-year
old amulet from Indus valley civilization.[6]
India is attributed as one of the first civilizations to use casting
methods to mass produce coins. Around the middle of the first
millennium BC (1000 BC - 1 BC), coins used were made from
silver but as the millennium progressed the coins shifted to a cast
copper alloy.[4] New technology was developed to mass produce
the new copper coins. Introduced was a multi piece stackable coin
template mold. Multiple molds were placed on top of one another
into a clay cylinder so molten metal could be poured down the
center, filling and solidifying in the open spaces.[4] This process
allowed one hundred coins to be produced simultaneously.[4]

In the Middle East and West Africa the lost wax technique was
used very early in their metallurgy traditions while China adopted
it much later. In Western Europe lost wax techniques are
considered to have been hardly used especially in comparison to
that of the Indus valley civilization.[4] There were no pieces of lost
wax found in the capital of Anyang during the Shane dynasty Dancing girl of Mohenjo-daro
(1600-1040 BC) while a large amount (100,000 pieces) of piece-
mould fragments were found. This led to the conclusion that lost
wax was not performed in the capital during this dynasty. However, the discovery of a mask made
using the investment moulding dated at around 1300 BC indicated that the lost wax technique may
have influenced other regions in China.[7]

Historians debate the origin of the development of the cannon but most evidence points to Turkey
and Central Asia in the 18th and 19th century. The casting process of a cannon is a bit more
complex with the use of a clay core, a template which has clay moulded around it and then broken
out followed by an assembly in a casting pit that involves binding the casting with iron bands.[4]

Types

Metal

In metalworking, metal is heated until it becomes liquid and is then

poured into a mold. The mold is a hollow cavity that includes the
desired shape, but the mold also includes runners and risers that
enable the metal to fill the mold. The mold and the metal are then
cooled until the metal solidifies. The solidified part (the casting) is
then recovered from the mold. Subsequent operations remove excess
material caused by the casting process (such as the runners and
risers).

Plaster, concrete, or plastic resin

Plaster and other chemical curing materials such as concrete and Judenplatz Holocaust
plastic resin may be cast using single-use waste molds as noted Memorial (Nameless
above, multiple-use 'piece' molds, or molds made of small rigid pieces Library), by Rachel
or of flexible material such as latex rubber (which is in turn Whiteread. Concrete cast of
supported by an exterior mold). When casting plaster or concrete, the books on library shelves
material surface is flat and lacks transparency. Often topical turned inside out.
treatments are applied to the surface. For example, painting and
etching can be used in a way that give the appearance of metal or
stone. Alternatively, the material is altered in its initial casting process and may contain colored
sand so as to give an appearance of stone. By casting concrete, rather than plaster, it is possible to
create sculptures, fountains, or seating for outdoor use. A simulation of high-quality marble may
be made using certain chemically-set plastic resins (for example epoxy or polyester which are
thermosetting polymers) with powdered stone added for coloration, often with multiple colors
worked in. The latter is a common means of making washstands, washstand tops and shower
stalls, with the skilled working of multiple colors resulting in simulated staining patterns as is
often found in natural marble or travertine.

Fettling
Raw castings often contain irregularities caused by seams and imperfections in the molds,[7] as
well as access ports for pouring material into the molds.[8] The process of cutting, grinding,
shaving or sanding away these unwanted bits is called "fettling".[9][10] In modern times robotic
processes have been developed to perform some of the more repetitive parts of the fettling
process,[11] but historically fettlers carried out this arduous work manually,[5] and often in
conditions dangerous to their health.[12]

Fettling can add significantly to the cost of the resulting product, and designers of molds seek to
minimize it through the shape of the mold, the material being cast, and sometimes by including
decorative elements.[13][7]

Casting process simulation

Casting process simulation uses numerical methods to calculate cast component quality
considering mold filling, solidification and cooling, and provides a quantitative prediction of
casting mechanical properties, thermal stresses and distortion. Simulation accurately describes a
cast component's quality up-front before production starts. The casting rigging can be designed
with respect to the required component properties. This has benefits beyond a reduction in pre-
production sampling, as the precise layout of the complete casting system also leads to energy,
material, and tooling savings.

The software supports the user in component design, the determination of melting practice and
casting methoding through to pattern and mold making, heat treatment, and finishing. This saves
costs along the entire casting manufacturing route.

Casting process simulation was initially developed at universities starting from the early '70s,
mainly in Europe and in the U.S., and is regarded as the most important innovation in casting
technology over the last 50 years. Since the late '80s, commercial programs (such as AutoCAST
and MAGMA) are available which make it possible for foundries to gain new insight into what is
happening inside the mold or die during the casting process.

See also
Centrifugal casting (industrial) – Casting technique that is typically used to cast thin-walled
cylinders
Core plug – Closure for sand casting core holes on water-cooled internal combustion engine
blocks
Die casting – Metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high
pressure into a mould cavity
Glass casting – Process in which glass objects are cast by directing molten glass into a mould
where it solidifies
Investment casting – industrial process based on lost-wax casting
 Lost-foam casting – Type of evaporative-pattern casting process
Lost-wax casting – Process by which a duplicate metal sculpture is cast from an original
sculpture
Molding (process) – Shaping a liquid or plastic material by making it conform to a more rigid
mold
Plaster Casting (Process) [14] - Sand casting process with use of Plaster to fill gaps
Permanent mold casting – Metal casting process that employs reusable molds
Rapid casting – Use of 3-d printing to create disposable patterns
Sand casting – Metal casting process using sand as the mold material
Slipcasting

References
1. Degarmo, E. Paul; Black, J T.; Kohser, Ronald A. (2003), Materials and Processes in
Manufacturing (9th ed.), Wiley, p. 277, ISBN 0-471-65653-4
2. Ravi, B. (2005), Metal Casting: Computer-Aided Design and Analysis (1st ed.), PHI, ISBN 81-
203-2726-8
3. Davey, Christopher J. (2009). J. Mei; Th. Rehren (eds.). The early history of lost-wax casting.
Metallurgy and Civilisation: Eurasia and Beyond. London. pp. 147–154.
4. Craddock, Paul T (October 8, 2014). "The Metal Casting Traditions of South Asia: Continuity
and Innovation". Indian Journal of History of Science. 50.1: 55–82.
5. Jane L. Bassett; Peggy Fogelman; David A. Scott; Ronald C. Schmidtling (2008). The
Craftsman Revealed: Adriaen de Vries, Sculptor in Bronze (https://books.google.com/books?id
=E8oxCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA269). Getty Publications. pp. 269–. ISBN 978-0-89236-919-5.
6. Thoury, M.; et al. (2016). "High spatial dynamics-photoluminescence imaging reveals the
metallurgy of the earliest lost-wax cast object". Nature Communications. 7.
doi:10.1038/ncomms13356.
7. Gordon Elliott (2006). Aspects of Ceramic History: A Series of Papers Focusing on the
Ceramic Artifact As Evidence of Cultural and Technical Development (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=jJ837TN6S5cC&pg=PA52). Gordon Elliott. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-0-9557690-0-9.
8. B. Ravi (1 January 2005). Metal Casting: Computer-Aided Design and Analysis (https://books.
google.com/books?id=_AZ-kckukGwC&pg=PA92). PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-
81-203-2726-9.
9. T F Waters (11 September 2002). Fundamentals of Manufacturing For Engineers (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=zdkneL9b-54C&pg=PA17). CRC Press. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-0-203-
50018-7.
10. James T. Frane (1994). Craftsman's Illustrated Dictionary of Construction Terms (https://archiv
e.org/details/isbn_9781572180086). Craftsman Book Company. pp. 126 (https://archive.org/de
tails/isbn_9781572180086/page/126)–. ISBN 978-1-57218-008-6.
11. The British Foundryman (https://books.google.com/books?id=4W9WAAAAMAAJ). 1986. p. 80.
12. Sidney Pollard (1993). A History of Labour in Sheffield (https://books.google.com/books?id=F5
1IAAAAYAAJ). Gregg Revivals. pp. 284–285. ISBN 978-0-7512-0215-1.
13. Iron and Steel (https://books.google.com/books?id=8kFWAAAAYAAJ). Louis Cassier. 1971.
p. 80.
14. "Plaster Casting process" (https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/custom-manufacturing-fabricati
ng/types-of-casting-processes/).

Further reading
Campbell, John (2003), Casting (2nd ed.), Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 0-7506-4790-6.
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