Aluminum casting in steel and iron permanent molds is used widely throughout industry, and the vast majority of permanent mold castings are made of aluminum and its alloys. There are several methods used to cast aluminum in permanent molds. This article focuses on permanent mold casting with molten aluminum fed by gravity, low pressure, vacuum and centrifugal pressure, and squeeze casting. It discusses the major variables that affect the life of permanent molds, including pouring temperature, casting shape, cooling methods, heating cycles, storage, and cleaning. The article reviews the basic components of mold coatings: refractory fillers, binder, and carrier. Casting defects and suggested corrective actions for permanent mold casting are summarized in a table. The article concludes with a discussion on thin-wall permanent-mold castings.

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.

Aluminum casting alloys are among the most versatile of all common foundry alloys and generally have high castability ratings. This article provides an overview of the common methods of aluminum shape casting. It discusses the designations of aluminum casting alloys categorized by the Aluminum Association designation system. The article summarizes the basic composition groupings of aluminum casting alloy and discusses the effects of specific alloying elements and impurities. The characteristics of the important casting processes are summarized and compared in a table. The article presents the advantages and disadvantages of green sand casting, permanent mold casting, semipermanent mold casting, and high-pressure die casting. A discussion on other casting processes, such as investment casting, lost foam, plaster mold casting, pressure casting, centrifugal casting, and semisolid casting, is also included.

This article discusses the categories and subcategories of shape casting processes. These include single-use processes such as sand, plaster, ceramic, and graphite molding; essentially unpressurized multiuse processes, such as permanent mold; and high-pressure metal mold methods, such as die casting, squeeze casting, and semisolid processing. The article contains tables that compare some of the typical capabilities of shape casting processes.

Semisolid metal (SSM) processing is a special die casting process, where partially solidified metal slurry is injected into a die cavity to form die cast components. This article discusses the flow behavior of an SSM slurry with emphasis on viscosity, rheological behavior, and yield stress. It illustrates the microstructural formation of semisolids under forced convection. The article concludes with an illustration that compares two SSM processes, namely, thixocasting and rheocasting.

The properties of copper alloys occur in unique combinations found in no other alloy system. This article focuses on the major and minor alloying additions and their impact on the properties of copper. It describes major alloying additions, such as zinc, tin, lead, aluminum, silicon, nickel, beryllium, chromium, and iron. The article discusses minor alloying additions, including antimony, bismuth, selenium, manganese, and phosphorus. Copper alloys can be cast by many processes, including sand casting, permanent mold casting, precision casting, high-pressure die casting, and low-pressure die casting. The article provides information on the types of copper castings and tabulates the nominal chemical composition and mechanical properties of several cast alloys.

Aluminum casting alloys are the most versatile of all common foundry alloys and generally have the highest castability ratings. This article provides an overview of the common methods of aluminum shape casting. These include gravity casting, die casting, sand casting, lost foam casting, shell mold casting, plaster casting, investment casting, permanent mold casting, squeeze casting, semisolid forming, centrifugal casting, and pressure die casting. The article presents several different factors on which the selection of a casting process depends. It discusses gating and risering principles in casting. The article concludes with information on premium engineered castings that provide higher levels of quality and reliability than in conventionally produced castings.

The 443 series of aluminum casting alloys have nominal silicon content of 5 wt% with various limits on iron, copper, manganese and magnesium. They are hypoeutectic AI-Si binary alloys with high ductility, very good corrosion resistance, good machinability, but only fair castability, and low strength. The alloys are used in castings where above average ductility coupled with excellent corrosion resistance is needed. This datasheet provides information on key alloy metallurgy, fabrication characteristics, processing effects on physical and mechanical properties, and application characteristics of these alloys.

Aluminum casting alloys are the most versatile of all common foundry alloys and generally have the highest castability ratings. Aluminum alloy castings are routinely produced by pressure-die, permanent-mold, green and dry-sand, investment, and plaster casting. This article describes factors affecting the selection of casting process and the general designation system for aluminum alloys. It provides useful information on mechanical test methods, selection of proper test specimens for accurate test methods, characteristics of premium engineered castings, and advantages of hot isostatic pressing.

This article provides a general introduction on casting processes and design techniques. It discusses the process steps and methods of the main categories of shape casting methods, namely, expendable molds with permanent patterns, expendable molds with expendable patterns, and metal or permanent mold processes. The article lists the general guidelines of geometry in casting design. It describes the three separate contractions that are a result of cooling: liquid-liquid contraction, solid-solid contraction, and liquid-solid contraction. Factors influencing the solidification sequence of simple shapes, such as T-sections, X-sections, and L-sections, are discussed. The article also presents an overview of geometric factors that influence heat transfer and transport phenomena. It concludes with a description of the structure and properties of castings.

This article provides information on metals that can be cast in permanent molds. It describes the advantages, disadvantages, applications, and design of permanent castings. Following a discussion on the factors considered in mold design and material selection, the article details the application of mold coatings and examines the effects of major processing variables on mold life. The variables that determine mold temperature and measures for controlling it are reviewed, and the effects of short-term and long-term variables on the dimensional accuracy of permanent mold castings are explained. The article concludes with a discussion on the factors influencing the surface finish on permanent mold castings.

This article discusses classification of foundry processes based on the molding medium, such as sand molds, ceramic molds, and metallic molds. Sand molds can be briefly classified into two types: bonded sand molds, and unbonded sand molds. Bonded sand molds include green sand molds, dry sand molds, resin-bonded sand molds, and sodium silicate bonded sand. The article describes the casting processes that use these molds, including the no-bake process, cold box process, hot box process, the CO2 process, lost foam casting process and vacuum molding process. The casting processes that use ceramic molds include investment casting, and plaster casting. Metallic molds are used in permanent mold casting, die casting, semisolid casting, and centrifugal casting.

Aluminum alloys are primarily used for nonferrous castings because of their light weight and corrosion resistance. This article discusses at length the melting and metal treatment, structure control, sand casting, permanent mold casting, and die casting of aluminum alloys. It also covers the types and melting and casting practices of copper alloys, zinc alloys, magnesium alloys, titanium alloys, and superalloys, and provides a brief account on the casting technique of metal-matrix composites.

The aluminum-tin alloys 850.0, 851.0, 852.0, and 853.0 are specialized compositions displaying excellent bearing characteristics under moderate loads and with effective lubrication. This datasheet provides information on key alloy metallurgy, fabrication characteristics, processing effects on physical and mechanical properties, and application characteristics of these alloys. Permanent-mold aluminum casting rotating-beam fatigue curves for 850.0-T101, 850.0-T5, and 852.0-T5 alloys are also presented.

The 391-type hypereutectic aluminum-silicon alloys are hypereutectic alloys designed for applications where excellent wear resistance is needed. They are similar to the 390 family of alloys, except for a low copper content to improve castability and corrosion resistance. This datasheet provides information on key alloy metallurgy and processing effects on mechanical properties of separately cast test bars of these alloys.

This article summarizes some general alloy groupings by application or major characteristics. The groupings include cast rotor, general-purpose, elevated-temperature, wear-resistant, moderate-strength, high-strength, and high-integrity die casting alloys and cast aluminum alloys bearings. A table lists selected applications for aluminum casting alloys.

Aluminum casting alloys are the most versatile of all common foundry alloys and generally have the highest castability ratings. This article discusses the designation and classification of aluminum casting alloys based on their composition and the factors influencing alloy selection. Alloys discussed include rotor alloys, commercial duralumin alloys, premium casting alloys, piston and elevated-temperature alloys, general-purpose alloys, magnesium alloys, aluminum-zinc-magnesium alloys, and bearing alloys. Six basic types of aluminum alloys developed for casting include aluminum-copper, aluminum-copper-silicon, aluminum-silicon, aluminum-magnesium, aluminum-zinc-magnesium, and aluminum-tin. The article also describes the main casting processes for aluminum alloys, which include die casting, permanent mold casting, sand casting (green sand and dry sand), plaster casting, and investment casting. In addition, the article discusses factors affecting the mechanical and physical properties, microstructural features that affect mechanical properties, the effects of alloying, and major applications of aluminum casting alloys.

Alloy 308.0 is an Al-Si-Cu alloy used in sand and permanent mold casting. This datasheet provides information on key alloy metallurgy, fabrication characteristics, processing effects on physical and mechanical properties, and applications of this alloy.

A key aspect of solidification process modeling is the treatment of the interface between the solidifying casting and the mold in which it is contained. This article begins with information on casting-mold interface heat-transfer phenomena. It describes practical considerations and methods for incorporating interface heat-transfer coefficient into models and for quantifying the heat transfer coefficient experimentally. The article concludes with information on the selection of the heat transfer coefficient for a given casting configuration.

Casting is one of the most economical and efficient methods for producing metal parts. In terms of scale, it is well suited for everything from low-volume, prototype production runs to filling global orders for millions of parts. Casting also affords great flexibility in terms of design, readily accommodating a wide range of shapes, dimensional requirements, and configuration complexities. This article traces the history of metal casting from its beginnings to the current state, creating a timeline marked by discoveries, advancements, and influential events. It also lists some of the major markets where castings are used.