This chapter presents the criteria, methods, and benefits of cast-weld construction.

This chapter describes the processes involved in alloy production, including melting, casting, solidification, and fabrication. It discusses the effects of alloying on solidification, the formation of solidification structures, supercooling, nucleation, and grain growth. It describes the design and operation of melting furnaces as well as melting practices and the role of fluxing. It also discusses casting methods, nonferrous casting alloys, and atomization processes used to make metal powders.

This chapter focuses on engineering drawings for casting production, providing information on machining and casting drawings and machining and tooling references.

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.

Casting quality and consistency need to be carefully controlled. This chapter discusses the procedures that describe the process and product quality controls. In addition, it provides information on quality assurance programs.

This chapter explains various aspects of the foundry process that the design engineer should consider when designing steel castings. It discusses special feeding aids, such as tapers, padding, ribs, and chills that may be used by foundry personnel to promote directional solidification. The chapter addresses the design of castings to reduce the occurrence of internal shrinkage. It provides a detailed discussion on design considerations for molding, cleaning, machining, and function.

This chapter gives an overview of how steel castings may be effectively adapted to modern concurrent engineering processes. The chapter discusses computer aided design programs, solid modeling, solidification simulation programs, and rapid prototyping.

This chapter discusses the processes and guidelines for selecting a supplier and for specifying and purchasing steel castings. It details the information that is most useful to the casting supplier and purchaser.

This chapter discusses the role of standards and specifications for steel castings. It defines specifications and discusses how certification, testing, examination, methods, practices, procedures, compositions, properties, facilities, statistical process control, and documentation relate to codes and standards. The chapter describes processes involved in the selection of specifications for steel castings. Further, it provides information on the cost of specifications.

Nickel-base castings are produced from a group of alloys with compositions that are typically greater than 50% Ni and less than 10% iron. This chapter presents the casting compositions of nickel-base alloys. It then provides an overview of heat treatment, mechanical properties, and applications of nickel-base castings.

Pattern equipment is the tooling utilized to form the mold cavity of a casting. This chapter first discusses the following factors that should be considered for determining the type of pattern equipment: number of castings to be produced, mold processes to be employed, dimensional tolerances required, casting design, and pattern cost. It also discusses the factors that should be considered when engineering a pattern. The chapter then presents the types of materials used for pattern construction. It provides an overview of patternmaker's shrinkage allowance. Finally, the chapter presents the factors that govern the space requirements for pattern storage.

This chapter defines steel castings, explains when to use steel castings, gives an overview of casting processes, and gives examples of suitable applications for cast steel parts.

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.

This chapter covers the friction and wear behaviors of cast irons. It describes the microstructure and metallurgy of gray, white, malleable, and ductile cast irons, their respective tensile properties, and their suitability for applications involving friction, various types of erosion, and adhesive and abrasive wear.

This chapter first introduces the various factors that may alter the physical and mechanical properties of aluminum castings that are addressed in the other chapters in the book. Then, it presents the historical development of aluminum castings, followed by a discussion on the advantages and limitations of aluminum castings. Next, the chapter describes the major trends that are influencing the increased use of aluminum castings. Finally, it introduces the considerations involved in the selection of an appropriate aluminum alloy and casting process for a given application.

The inspection of castings normally involves checking for shape and dimensions, coupled with aided and unaided visual inspection for external discontinuities and surface quality. This chapter discusses methods for determining surface quality, internal discontinuities, and dimensional inspection. Casting defects including porosity, oxide films, inclusions, hot tears, metal penetration, and surface defects are reviewed. Liquid penetrant inspection, magnetic particle inspection, eddy current inspection, radiographic inspection, ultrasonic inspection, and leak testing for castings are discussed. The chapter provides information on the procedures involved in the inspection of castings that are limited to visual and dimensional inspections, weight testing, and hardness testing. It also discusses the use of computer equipment in foundry inspection operations.

This chapter provides information on comparative attributes of sand molds and metal molds for aluminum casting. The cooling rates and microstructures obtained with each mold type are discussed. In addition, the chapter explains why sand castings work successfully in certain applications.

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.