Casting parts | Metal Parts Casting

Metal parts casting is a centuries old method of producing components in a variety of materials in a cost effective manner. Often, metal part casting is the only viable method of producing certain parts, providing the potential for complex shapes and geometries, optimizing material usage and reducing wastage. By casting parts you can often incorporate features that would be totally uneconomical to machine- if you were to think of the examples of say a church bell, or a gearbox casing, if they were produced from a solid billet of metal, the amount of swarf (material that is machined away and is effectively scrap) would far out way the amount of material left in the finished article.

Metal parts casting covers a wide range of processes including sand casting, investment casting and die casting, each offering different metal part casting benefits which are unique to the process. Casting parts by the sand cast process provides flexibility in material choice, size and quantity but is a relatively inaccurate method for metal part casting, investment casting brings dimensional accuracy, good surface finish and the same levels of flexibility in material and quantity, but is generally for smaller items, from a few grams to maybe 200 kg (although the vast majority of investment cast parts are probably less than 20kg) and die casting parts are generally smaller, higher volume applications with a restriction on the materials that can be cast to those with lower melting temperatures.

Huge strides have been made in machining centre technology in recent years but the requirement for metal part casting will always be there, particularly where there is complex shape or the potential for excessive process waste.