Advantages and Disadvantages of the Metal Casting Process

Metal casting is a production method in which molten metal is poured into a cavity with a shape and size appropriate to the workpiece and left to cool and solidify to obtain a blank or part.

The most common casting methods include sand casting, investment casting, and pressure casting. In addition, there are also some alternative casting methods, such as lost foam casting, metal mold casting, centrifugal casting, etc.

The benefits of manufacturing metal parts with the casting process include:

1. Metal casting processes can manufacture workpieces with complex shapes especially complicated internal cavities, such as boxes, cylinder blocks, etc.;
2. Wide range of adaptations;
3. The metal casting process can utilize low-cost iron and steel scrap, milling debris, etc., and casting equipment is relatively low.
4. The size and weight are almost unrestricted with metal casting workpieces;
5. The shape and size of the castings are very close to the workpiece. Therefore the metal casting process reduces the amount of further machining work and saves the metal materials.

Along with its advantages, the metal casting process also has disadvantages, including

1. The relatively more involved production operations make casting processes more challenging to be fully controlled;
2. The casting workpieces are more prone to take with casting defects;
3. Relatively poor dimensional consistency and accuracy;
4. Compared with forgings of the same size and shape, the intrinsic quality of castings is weaker, and the load-bearing capacity is less than that of forgings;
5. Poor working environment with high temperature, dust, and high labor intensity.

To summarise, we have to consider the material, application requirements, performance requirements, cost, and other factors to choose the most suitable production process to manufacture our products.