Iron has been electroplated from a variety of electrolytes, whose bath parameters result in coatings that have widely divergent characteristics according to the specific characteristics desired in the finished product. This article provides an overview of the process description and processing equipment and discusses the properties, advantages, limitations, and principal applications of iron plating. It also describes the environmental, health, and safety considerations of iron plating.

Electroless, or autocatalytic, metal plating is a nonelectrolytic method of deposition from solution that can be plated uniformly over all surfaces, regardless of size and shape. The plating's ability to plate onto nonconductors is an advantage that contributes to the choice of electroless copper in various applications. This article provides information on the bath chemistry and deposit properties of electroless copper and discusses the applications of electroless copper plating, such as printed wiring boards, decorative plating-on-plastic, electromagnetic interference shielding, and hybrid and other advanced applications. It describes two commercial processes, pretreatment and post-treatment. The article reviews the solutions used, controls and control equipment, and performance criteria of electroless copper plating. It concludes with information on the environmental and safety issues associated with electroless copper plating.

Cores are separate shapes of sand that are placed in the mold to provide castings with contours, cavities, and passages that are not otherwise practical or physically obtainable by the mold. This article describes the basic principles of coremaking and the types of core sands, binders, and additives used in coremaking. It discusses the curing of compacted cores by core baking and the hot box processes. The article provides an overview of core coatings, assembling and core setting, coring of tortuous passages, and cores in permanent mold castings and investment castings. It also discusses the design considerations in coremaking to eliminate cores and compares coring with drilling.

Cores are separate shapes, of sand, metal or plaster, that are placed in the mold to provide castings with contours, cavities, and passages. Cored holes should be designed as simply as the intended function of the casting permits. This article describes the designing of casting for the use of sand cores and to eliminate cores, with illustrations. It provides general rules for designing cored holes in investment castings. The article discusses the general principles of coremaking with illustrations. It concludes with a comparison between coring and drilling.

This article discusses the types of patterns used for a specific application such as loose patterns, match plate patterns, cope and drag patterns, and special patterns. It describes the principles of the patternmaking techniques used to make expendable molds and for metal casting processes such as die casting and permanent mold casting. The article reviews the pattern features and mold production considerations used in pattern design, namely, parting line considerations, addition of gates and risers, core prints, and locating points. It discusses the pattern allowances for ensuring a dimensionally correct final pattern. A wide variety of materials and advanced composite materials used in the manufacture of patterns are discussed. The article reviews the factors influencing the selection of type of patterns for specific castings.

Honeycomb is a product consisting of very thin sheets attached to form connecting cells. This article briefly explains the construction, core characteristics, properties, and testing methods of the honeycomb structures. It discusses the special processes used to custom fit the shape of core to fit customer’s specific needs. The article provides information on sandwich structures, including material selection, design guidelines, and structural efficiency.

Shell molding is used for making production quantities of castings that range in weight from a few ounces to approximately 180 kg (400 lb), in both ferrous and nonferrous metals. This article lists the limitations or disadvantages of shell mold casting. It describes the two methods for preparation of resin-sand mixture for shell molding, namely, mixing resin and sand according to conventional dry mixing techniques, and coating the sand with resin. Shaping of shell molds and cores from resin sand mixtures is accomplished in machines. The article discusses the major steps in producing a mold or core and describes the problems most frequently encountered in shell-mold casting. The problems include mold cracking, soft molds, low hot tensile strength of molds, peelback, and mold shift. The article concludes with information on examples that provide some relative cost comparisons between shell molding and green sand molding.

Riser design deals with the development of suitable reservoirs of feed metal in addition to the desired casting shape. The role of an engineer in designing risers can be stated simply as making sure that risers will provide the feed metal: in the right amount, at the right place, and at the right time. This article addresses these considerations in the context of feed metal volume, riser location, and duration of liquid feed metal. It discusses the three types of feeding systems, such as riser sleeves, topping compounds, and breaker cores, that are used in riser design. The factors in riser size, riser necks, and breaker cores are discussed.

In terms of component design, casting offers a great amount of flexibility. This article discusses the parameters that can drive the geometry of casting design from a process standpoint. It provides information on the design of junctions and addresses considerations of secondary operations in design. The article describes the factors that control casting tolerances and provides specific tips for designing castings with uniform wall thickness and unequal sections, designing thin sections, designing for economical coring, designing for functional packaging, and core design principles. The choice of whether a component is best manufactured as welded, assembled, fabricated, forged, machined, or cast is based on the component geometry, production costs, and requirements in application. The article addresses these issues and provides a framework for analyzing all manners of manufacturing as possible conversion candidates. It concludes with a discussion on different metalcasting design projects.

After solidification and cooling, further processing and finishing of the castings are required. This article describes the general operations of shakeout, grinding, cleaning, and inspection of castings, with particular emphasis on automation technology. It illustrates the vertical core knockout machine and the A-frame core knockout machine and lists the advantages and disadvantages of the knockout machines. The article describes the general factors in automated or manual gate removal process. It concludes with discussion on the various types of inspection, such as liquid penetrant inspection, pressure testing, radiographic inspection, magnetic particle inspection, and ultrasonic inspection.

Surface coatings are essential in all facilities that process nuclear materials or use nuclear fission for power generation. This article describes the coatings used in two basic types of Generation 3 nuclear reactor designs in the United States and their containment size. These reactors are the boiling water reactor (BWR) and pressurized water reactor (PWR). The article provides information on the loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) identified as the design basis accident (DBA), which can rapidly de-water the core of an operating nuclear reactor. To avoid LOCA, both the BWR and the PWR include emergency core cooling systems. The article describes a DBA test and other coating performance parameters necessary for safety-related coating systems. It provides a detailed account of the selection criteria of coating types in a nuclear plant. The article concludes by highlighting protective coating strategies in Generation 3 Plants.

The selection of surface treatments for copper and copper alloys is generally based on application requirements for appearance and corrosion resistance. This article describes cleaning, finishing, and coating processes for copper and copper alloys. These processes include pickling and bright dipping, abrasive blast cleaning, chemical and electrochemical cleaning, mass finishing, polishing and buffing, electroless plating, immersion plating, electroplating, passivation, coloring, and organic coatings.

This article describes the presses that are mechanically or hydraulically powered and used for producing sheet, strip, and plate from sheet metal. It also presents the JIC standards for presses, compares the presses based on power source, details the selection criteria and provides information on the various drive systems and the auxiliary equipment. It describes the selection of die materials and lubricants for sheet metal forming and provides information on the lubrication mechanisms and selection with a list of lubricant types for forming of specific sheet materials of ferrous or nonferrous metals. The article reviews the various types of forming processes such as blanking, piercing, fine-edge blanking, press bending, press forming, forming by multiple-slide machines, deep drawing, stretch forming, spinning, rubber-pad forming, three-roll forming, contour roll forming, drop hammer forming, explosive forming, electromagnetic forming, and superplastic forming.

This article provides general guidelines for casting design to provide progressive solidification, minimize heat concentration, eliminate cores, and prevent distortion. Casting design also affects tolerances. Casting tolerances depend on the alloy being poured, the size of the casting, and the molding method used. Designers can predict the effect of the design on the structure of the final part using solidification simulation models, namely finite element and finite difference models, and rapid prototyping. The article concludes with a short note on how the quality is assured in the foundry.

Arc welding methods can be classified into shielded metal arc welding, flux-cored arc welding, submerged arc welding, gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, plasma arc welding, plasma-metal inert gas (MIG) welding, and electroslag and electrogas welding. This article provides information on process capabilities, principles of operation, power sources, electrodes, shielding gases, flux, process variables, and advantages and disadvantages of these arc welding methods. It presents information about the arc welding procedures of hardenable carbon and alloy steels, cast irons, stainless steels, heat-resistant alloys, aluminum alloys, copper and copper alloys, magnesium alloys, nickel alloys, and titanium and titanium alloys.

This article reviews the pattern materials used in investment casting. It describes patternmaking process, pattern tooling, and pattern and cluster assembly. The article provides information on melting equipment, casting methods, and the inspection and testing of investment casted materials. It presents recommendations that which serve as a useful guide to the design of investment castings. The article tabulates the applications of the process and illustrates the Shellvest system for investment casting of small parts. It explains the manufacturing process of ceramic shell molds and cores. Binders and materials used for ceramic shell molds; slurry and cluster formulation; and pattern removal methods in the manufacturing process are summarized. The article discusses the coating and drying process of clusters and slurries.

No-bake sand molds are based on curing of inorganic or organic binders with either gaseous catalysts or liquid catalysts. This article reviews the major aspects of no-bake sand bonding in terms of coremaking, molding methods, and sand processing. It discusses the points to be noted in handling sand-resin mixtures for no-bake molds or cones and lists some advantages of no-bake air-set cores and molds. The article describes the process procedures, advantages, and disadvantages of gas curing and air-setting hardening of sodium silicates. It discusses the members of the air-setting organic binders, namely, furan no-bake resins, phenolic no-bake resins, and urethanes. The article provides an overview of gas-cured organic binders. It also illustrates the three commercial systems for sand reclamation: wet reclamation systems, dry reclamation systems, and thermal reclamation.

This article provides a discussion on ten rules for the effective production of reliable castings. The rules include good-quality melt, liquid front damage, liquid front stop, bubble damage, core blows, shrinkage damage, convection damage, segregation, residual stress, and location points.

This article provides an overview of conventional low-pressure casting and describes types of furnaces, tooling, and cores. It discusses the casting cycle steps, advantages, mechanical properties, and considerations of counterpressure casting. The article describes the vacuum riserless/pressure riserless casting process for casting aluminum.

Specialty steels encompass a broad range of ferrous alloys noted for their special processing characteristics (powder metallurgy alloys), corrosion resistance (stainless steels), wear resistance and toughness (tool steels), high strength (maraging steels), or magnetic properties (electrical steels). This article provides a detailed discussion on the various surface treatments, including cleaning, nitriding, carburizing, coating, and plating, performed on specialty steels.