Foundry Technology

UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION TO FOUNDRY

TECHNOLOGY

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 1.1 Overview of Foundry Technology
 Manufacturing processes are the steps through which raw
materials are transformed into a product. The manufacturing
processes can be broadly classified into three categories:

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 Foundry engineering deals with the processes of making
castings in moulds formed in either sand or some other material.

 The art of foundry in ancient dating back is used to the drawn of

civilization. Even in prehistoric times, as far as 5000 BC,
metallic objects in the form of knives, coins, arrows, and
household articles were in use.

 One of man’s first operations with metal was melting the ore
and pouring it into suitable moulds. The Casting process is said
to have been practiced in early historic times by the craftsmen
of Greek and Roman civilization. Copper and bronze were
common in ancient times, but evidence indicates that iron also
had been discovered and developed in the period around 2000
BC, through its use was greatly restricted.

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 The molds were made in stone or sand. Around 500 BC started the
era of religious upheavals, and metals began to be used for statues
of gods and goddesses. Bronze was still the most popular metal.
 Today, casting are required and difficult to cope with the demand
for:
 Automobiles, scooters, tractors, earth-moving machinery and
railways.
 Sophisticated casting needed for aeronautics, atomic energy,
defense and space researchers.
 Other shaping process such as hot working, forging, machining,
welding, welding and stamping, are of course, necessary to fulfill
tremendous range of need. However certain advantages inherent in
castings design and metallurgical and casting endow superiority
over the others.

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 1.2 Design Advantages of Castings

The main design advantages are:

Size: Casting may weigh as much as 200 tons or be as small as a
wire of 0.5mm diameter.
Complexity: the most simple or complex curved surfaces, inside or
outside, and complicated shapes, which would otherwise be very
difficult or impossible to machine, forge, or fabricate can usually
cast.
Weight saving: As the metal can be placed exactly where it is
required, large saving in weight is achieved.
Production of prototypes: The casting process is ideally suited to
the production of models or prototypes required for creating new
designs.

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Wide range of properties and versatility: Casting offers the most
complete range of mechanical and physical properties
available in metals and as such fulfill a large majority of
service requirements. In fact, some alloys can only be cast to
shape and cannot be worked mechanically. Almost any
requirement such as mechanical strength, wear resistance,
hardness, strength-to-weight ratio, heat and corrosion
resistance, electrical and thermal conductivity, and electrical
resistance, can be satisfied by cast alloys. In many cases, the
appearance of the component plays a part in enhancing its
value.

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1.3 Advantages of Casting Processes
Low cost: Casting is usually found to be the cheapest method of
metal shaping.
Dimensional accuracy: Castings can be made to fairly close
dimensional tolerances by choosing the proper type of
moulding and casting process.
Tolerances as close as +0.1 mm can be achieved.
The surface finish can also be controlled
Versatility in production: Metal casting is adaptable to all types
of production.
large number of parts required for the automotive
industry, agricultural implements, home appliances,
construction, and transportation are all produced by the
casting process.

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Metallurgical advantages
Fibrous structure: Wrought metals have a fibrous structure,
mainly due to a stringer-like arrangement of the inclusions of
non-metallic impurities. In cast metals, the inclusions are more
or less randomly distributed during the solidification process.
When wrought metals are worked, the inclusions are strung
out in the direction of working and so the fibrous nature results
in marked directionality of properties, except under
unfavourable conditions of solidification.
Grain size: Although mechanical working of wrought metals
causes breaking up of coarse grains, and promotes fine grain
size, many castings have grain sizes not very difficult from
those of the former. Most non ferrous alloys retain the grain
size attained during freezing of the casting. Subsequent heat
treatment of castings can also help in improving the grain size.
Density: The density of cast alloys is usually identical to that of
wrought alloys of the same chemical composition and heat
treatment, when both are fully sound.

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 1.4 Steps for Casting
 The casting process is basically one of introducing molten metal
into a cavity in the mould, previously shaped as desired, and
allowing it to solidify.
 The whole process of producing castings may be classified into
five stages:
Patternmaking:
 the patterns are designed and prepared as per the drawing of
the casting
 the material of the pattern may be selected depending on
factors such as the numbers of castings required, the possibility
of repeat orders, and the surface finish desired in the casting.
 core boxes needed for making cores and all other auxiliary
tooling items are also manufactured in the pattern making
section.

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Moulding and core making:
 moulds are prepared in ether sand or a similar material with
the help of the patterns so that a cavity of desired shape is
produced.
 for obtaining hollow options, cores are prepared separately in
core boxes.
 the moulds and cores are then baked to import strength and
finally assembled for pouring.
 the moulding work may be carried out either by hand or with
the help of machines, depending on the output required.
Melting and casting:
 melting metals in a suitable furnace.
 when molten, it is taken in to ladles and poured into the
moulds.
 the moulds are then allowed to cool down so that the metal
solidifies.
 the castings are finally extracted by breaking the moulds and
are sent to the cleaning section.
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Fettling:
 The castings are therefore sent to the fettling section where
the unnecessary projections are cut off, the adhering sands
removed, and the entire surface made clean and uniform.
 The casting may also need heat treatment depending on the
required specific properties.
Testing and inspection:
 Finally, before the casting is dispatched from the foundry, it
is tested and inspected to ensure that it is conforms to the
desired specifications.

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