Introduction

Manufacturing processes

Shaping machining Different component

metals joining parts.

1. Casting
2. Mechanical Working
3. Fabrication by joining
4. Machining
5. Powder Metallurgy

Casting may be defined as

• “metal object obtained by allowing molten metal to
solidify in the mold”, the shape of the object being
determined by the shape of the mold cavity.
• Casting / Founding is a process of forming metal objects by
melting and pouring it into molds.
A foundry is a commercial establishment for producing castings.
Significant in these definitions is the use of liquid metal to cast
the shape of the object directly, producing cast metal. Wrought
metal products differ from cast metal products in that the metal
has received mechanical working treatment such as forging,
rolling, or extruding. Practically all metals are initially cast.

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Castings obtain their shape principally when molten metal
solidifies in the desired form. Wrought objects, however, are
cast as ingots and then plastically worked to approximately the
desired shape.
METAL CASTING, A PROCESS OF SHAPING
The strength of the foundry industry rests on the fundamental
nature of casting as a process for causing metals to take shapes
that will serve the needs of man.
Certain advantages are inherent in the metal-casting process.
These may form the basis for choosing casting as a process to be
preferred over other shaping processes in a particular case. Some
of the reasons for the success of the casting process follow:
1. The most intricate of shapes, both external and internal,
may be cast As a result, many other operations, such as
machining, forging, and welding, may be minimized or
eliminated.
2. Because of their metallurgical nature, some metals can only
be cast to shape since they cannot be hot-worked into bars,
rods, plates, or other shapes from ingot form as a
preliminary to other processing. The highly useful and low-
cost cast irons, which exceed the total of all other metals in
tonnage cast, illustrate this fact.
3. Construction may be simplified. Objects may be cast in a
single piece which would otherwise require construction in
several pieces and subsequent assembly if made by other
methods.
4. Metal casting is a process highly adaptable to the
requirements of mass production. Large numbers of a given
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 casting may be produced very rapidly. The use of castings
in the automotive industry provides ample illustration of
this point.
5. Extremely large, heavy metal objects may be east when
they would be difficult or economically impossible to
produce otherwise. Large pump housings, valves, and
hydroelectric plant parts weighing up to 200 tons illustrate
this application.
6. Some engineering properties are obtained more favorably
in cast metals. Examples are:
a. Machinability and vibration damping capacity in cast
irons.
b. More uniform properties from a directional standpoint;
i.e., properly cast metals can exhibit the same
properties regardless of which direction is selected
relative to the original casting for the test piece. This
is not generally true for wrought metals.
c. Strength and lightness in certain light metal alloys
which can be produced only as castings.
d. Good bearing qualities are obtained in cast bearing
metals.

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 Types of Foundries:
Classification according to the type of metal cast:-
1. Ferrous
a. Gray iron foundry
b. Steel foundry
c. Malleable iron foundry
d. Ductile iron foundry
2. Non-ferrous
a. Brass and bronze foundry
b. Light metal alloys foundry (Aluminum , Mg –
alloys)
Classification according to nature of work and
organizational framework:-
1. Jobbing Foundry – A foundry having a physical
plant that usually contracts to produce a casting or a
small number of castings of a given type.
2. Production Foundry – Is a highly mechanized shop
which requires that large number of a given kind of
casting be made in order to produce them at low cost.
3. Captive Foundry – A foundry which is an integral
part of a manufacturing company and whose castings
are consumed mainly in the products of the parent
company.
4. Independent Foundry – Is usually a separate
company that produces castings for any number of
customers.
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 BASIC STEPS IN MAKING SAND CASTINGS
Practically all the detailed operations that enter into the making
of sand castings may be categorized as belonging to one of five
fundamental steps of the process:
1. Patternmaking (including core boxes)
2. Coremaking
3. Molding
4. Melting and pouring
5. Cleaning
Patternmaking
Patterns are required to make molds. The mold is made by
packing some readily formed plastic material, such as molding
sand, around the pattern.
When the pattern is withdrawn, its imprint provides the mold
cavity, which is ultimately filled with metal to become the
casting.
• Thus molding requires, first, that patterns be made.
• A pattern may be simply visualized as an approximate
replica of the exterior of a casting.
If the casting is to be hollow, as in the case of a pipe fitting,
additional patterns, referred to as core boxes, are used to form
the sand that is used to create these cavities.
Coremaking
Cores are forms, usually made of sand, which are placed into a
mold cavity to form the interior surfaces of castings. Thus the
void space between the core and mold-cavity surface is what
eventually becomes the casting.

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Molding
• Molding consists of all operations necessary to prepare a
mold for receiving molten metal.
• Molding usually involves placing a molding aggregate
around a pattern held within a supporting frame,
withdrawing the pattern to leave the mold cavity, setting
the cores in the mold cavity, and finishing and closing the
mold. The mold is then ready for pouring.
Melting and Pouring
• The preparation of molten metal for casting is referred to
simply as melting. Melting is usually done in a specifically
designated area of the foundry, and the molten metal is
transferred to the molding area where the molds are poured.
Cleaning
• Cleaning refers to all operations necessary for the removal
of sand, scale, and excess metal from the casting.
• The casting is separated from the molding sand and
transported to the cleaning department. Burned-on sand and
scale are removed to improve the surface appearance of the
casting. Excess metal, in the form of fins, wires, parting-
line fins, and gates, is cut off.
• Defective castings may be salvaged by welding or other
repair. Inspection of the casting for defects and general
quality follows.
• The casting is then ready for shipment or further
processing, for example, heat-treatment, surface treatment,
or machining.

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Patterns
Patterns are the foundryman's mold-forming tool. The mold
cavity, and therefore ultimately the casting, is made from the
pattern. Even if only one casting is desired, it is necessary to
have a pattern. Obtaining suitable pattern is thus the first step in
making castings.
Types of Patterns:
The patterns can broadly be classified into the following types:
1. Single or loose pattern
2. Gated pattern
3. Match plate pattern
4. Cope & drag patterns and
5. Special patterns and devices.
Single or loose pattern:
• These are the single copies of the casting but incorporating
the allowances and core prints necessary for production of
castings.
• Generally they are of wood construction but may be made
of metal, plaster, plastics, wax, or any other suitable
material. Relatively few castings are made from any one
loose pattern since hand molding is practiced and the
process is slow and costly.
• The parting surface may be hand-formed.
• Gating systems are hand-cut in the sand. Drawing the
pattern from the sand, after rapping it to loosen it from the
sand, is also done by hand. Consequently, casting

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 dimensions vary. Such a pattern might be used for
producing prototype castings.

Gated Patterns
• Gated patterns are an improvement on un-gated loose
patterns. The gating system is actually a part of the pattern
and eliminates hand-cutting the gates.
• More rapid molding of small quantities of castings results
with this type of pattern.

Match-plate Patterns
• Large-quantity production of small castings requires match-
plate patterns or more specialized types of pattern
equipment.

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 • The cope and drag portions of the pattern are mounted on
opposite sides of a wood or metal plate conforming to the
parting line.
• Match plates are also integrally cast in which cast pattern
and plate are cast as one piece in sand or plaster molds.
• Gating systems are almost always attached to the plate.
• Match plates are generally used with some type of molding
machine

• The improved production rate possible with these patterns

serves to compensate for their increased cost. Plates also
increase the dimensional accuracy of the casting.
• A limitation of the match-plate pattern arises in the weight
of mold and flask which can be handled by the molder.
Heavier work is ordinarily put onto larger molding
equipment, employing other pattern equipment.

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Cope and Drag Pattern Plates
• Cope and drag plates consist of the cope and drag parts of
the pattern mounted on separate plates. The cope and drag
halves of the mold may thus be made separately by workers
on different molding machines.
• The molding of medium and large castings on molding
machines is greatly facilitated by this type of pattern
equipment.
• Separate cope and drag plates are more costly, but this type
of pattern equipment is usually necessary in high-speed
mechanized or automated molding.
• Separate pattern plates require accurate alignment of the
two mold halves by means of guide and locating pins and
bushings in flasks in order that the upper and lower parts of
the casting may match.
Special Patterns and Devices
• Specialized pattern equipment is employed when the types
discussed above are not suitable.
• Such equipment is for quite unusual castings where the
mold is largely manually constructed.

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Pattern Allowances:
Although the pattern is used to produce a casting of the desired
dimensions, it is NOT dimensionally identical with the casting.
For metallurgical and mechanical reasons, a number of
allowances (provisions) must be made on the pattern if the
casting has to be dimensionally correct.
Shrinkage Allowance -
• Pattern shrinkage allowance is the amount the pattern must
be made larger than the casting to provide for total
contraction.
• Shrinkage allowance on patterns is a correction for
solidification shrinkage of the metal and its contraction
during cooling to room temperature. The total contraction
is volumetric, but the correction for it is usually expressed
linearly.
• It may vary from a negligible amount to 5/8 in. per ft,
depending on the metal and the nature of the casting.
• White iron, for example, shrinks about ¼ in. per ft when
cast, but during annealing it grows about 1/8 in. per ft, re-
sulting in a net shrinkage of 1/8 in per feet. Ductile cast
iron may solidify with a contraction of ¼ to 1/8 in. per ft,
depending on the degree of graphitization which it
undergoes during freezing (i.e., the more graphitization, the
less shrinkage).

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 • The patternmaker's shrink rule is a special scale which
avoids the computation of the amount of shrinkage
allowance which must be provided on a given dimension.
For example, on a 1/8 in. shrink rule, each foot is 1/8 in.
longer and each graduation is proportionately longer than
its conventional length. Shrink rules are available with the
standard allowances.
• Sometimes double allowances are made if a pattern is first
made in wood and then in some other metal, as in making
master patterns.
Machine Finish Allowance
• Machine finish allowance is the amount the dimensions on
a casting are made oversize to provide stock for machining.
• These allowances are influenced by the metal, the casting
design, and the method of casting and cleaning.
Pattern Draft Allowance
• Draft is a taper allowed on vertical faces of a pattern to
permit its removal from the sand or other molding medium
without tearing the mold cavity surfaces.
• A taper of 1/16 in. per ft is common for vertical walls of
patterns drawn by hand. Machine drawn patterns require
about 1 degree taper.
Size Tolerance
• The variation which may be permitted on a given casting
dimension is called its tolerance.

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