Planning and laying out casting facilities involve a number of vital factors, such as available infrastructure, selection of suitable sites, orientation of operations and process flow, markets and products, operating parameters, and targeted hourly output and annual capacity. This chapter presents guiding principles and layout concepts with these factors in mind. It also presents steps for the creation of a plant layout. Plant layout involves the arrangement of processing areas, machinery, and equipment for the efficient conversion of raw materials into finished products. The chapter discusses general guidelines for developing a layout.

Sand and metallic charge materials are two essential and heavy raw materials that are needed for molding and casting. This chapter focuses on planning and provision for storage and handling of the raw materials needed for casting manufacturing. The major raw materials used for molding and casting are metallic charge materials and nonmetallic materials. The chapter also presents the advantages, limitations, and applications of drum or rotary dryers (also known as rotary kiln dryers) and fluidized bed dryers (also known as vibration fluidized bed dryers).

This chapter focuses on the elements and functions of sand conditioning equipment which are critical to achieving good quality castings. The sand conditioning equipment include sand muller; core sand mixers; sand conveyors and bucket elevators; sand aerators; mold conveyors; shakeout units; magnetic separators; lump breakers and core crushers; screens; sand coolers; sand reclamation systems; and sand hoppers.

Molding flasks and other supplementary equipment are essential for molding complex shapes at competitive production rates and costs. This chapter addresses the design aspects of molding flasks and accessories, the features and handling accessories of molding machines, core making machines and innovations for productivity and quality, and automated core-setting aids.

Iron and steel castings require cleaning as they come out of the shakeout units to remove any burned sand and sand that may remain stuck from the mold. This chapter presents the casting cleaning operation sequence. The sequence includes shot blasting; decoring or removal of cores from castings; degating or removal of runners, gates, and feeders; and flash removal and automation. The chapter also presents the objectives of heat treatment and discusses its processes. The chapter describes product quality control. Quality checks are grouped into three categories: material checks, product checks, and functional checks.

This chapter provides an overview of key elements in controlling the casting process, systems to confirm the quality of outgoing components, and the steps needed to launch a novel product. The discussion also provides information on process control tools and techniques; incoming material control; process control of sand preparation and system maintenance; metallic charge materials; product quality control; and melting, metallurgical, and mechanical testing.

This chapter discusses the advantages, limitations, and applications of various aluminum casting processes, namely green sand casting process, air set or no-bake molding process, vacuum molding process, evaporative foam casting process, and die casting process. The processes covered also include gravity permanent molding, low-pressure permanent molding, counter pressure, squeeze casting, investment casting, rapid prototype casting, cast forge hybrid, and semisolid metal processes.

This chapter is a collection of tables listing: cast alloy designations of Aluminum Association, along with their general applications; the chemical compositions of the frequently used alloys for gravity permanent molds, low-pressure permanent molds, squeeze castings, and die castings; the typical tensile properties of die cast alloys; and the designations of different heat treatments and their description. The tables also list the temperatures and times of typical heat treatment cycles for different permanent mold cast alloys; typical components in sand, gravity, and low-pressure permanent mold castings and die castings, the functional requirements of each process, and the corresponding suitable alloys and heat treatments; and alloys that are high vacuum die cast for structural castings. The chapter also presents examples of photomicrographs of some alloys cast by different processes.

Almost all metals and alloys are produced from liquids by solidification. For both castings and wrought products, the solidification process has a major influence on both the microstructure and mechanical properties of the final product. This chapter discusses the three zones that a metal cast into a mold can have: a chill zone, a zone containing columnar grains, and a center-equiaxed grain zone. Since the way in which alloys partition on freezing, it follows that all castings are segregated to different categories. The different types of segregation discussed include normal, gravity, micro, and inverse. The chapter also provides information on grain refinement and secondary dendrite arm spacing and porosity and shrinkage in castings. It concludes with a brief overview of six of the most important casting processes in industries: sand casting, plaster mold casting, evaporative pattern casting, investment casting, permanent mold casting, and die casting.

This chapter discusses the following conventional molding processes for static casting: green sand molding, dry sand molding, vacuum molding, and expendable pattern casting. It also discusses core and mold processes for steel castings. The chapter provides an overview of sand molds for large steel castings and a special sand molding process. It describes the following precision processes for static casting: investment casting, ceramic molding, and centrifugal casting.