Casting takes shape.

Casting metal parts is one of the oldest known production processes. Metal jewellery and utensils were made by casting molten metals in a mould as far back as the Early Bronze Age. Discoveries that suggest small production series confirm this. The simplest moulds were used for one-off casting of busts and statues and were smashed to separate them from the casting after cooling: a technique that survives to this day in bell founding in the form of “break-moulds”. Nevertheless, it would be impossible to imagine our high-tech world without castings.

Overview of mould technologies:

• Sand casting
  With sand moulding, the pattern is shaped in the sand. The pattern is then removed and the hollow space that remains is used to cast the molten material.
• Waste-wax casting
  In waste-wax casting, small to tiny castings are produced using the lost wax technique. This process is characterised by its level of detail, dimensional accuracy and surface quality.
• Chill casting
  In chill casting, the molten metal is poured through an sprue into a permanent metal mould, which is called a chill.
• Disamatic
  The pattern is shaped vertically in the sand with high pneumatic and hydraulic moulding forces combined with very fine moulding sand facilitating a special surface finish and contour fidelity.
• Lost-foam casting
  In lost-foam casting, liquid metal is cast directly in a polymer pattern embedded in quartz sand. The hot metal causes the thermal decomposition of the pattern, taking on its shape.
• Diecasting
  In diecasting, the liquid material is compressed and solidified in a diecasting mould by means of very high mould filling speed and high pressure. The pattern required for this process is called a diecasting mould.