Steel Casting Process

Steel Investment Casting: Refers to steel castings made in investment casting process. In investment casting, a ceramic slurry is applied around a disposable pattern to form a mold.Lost-foam casting is a casting process that is similar to investment casting except foam is used for the pattern instead of wax. Investment casting is a casting process in which a mold is made around a wax pattern that is burned away when the molten material is poured in.

Investment casting process is preferred when the steel part is not large, normally less than 60kg. Such technique can help to win close tolerance, high accuracy and less defects. Most important is that steel castings by investment casting can achieve good surface finish and nearly net shape.

Steel Sand Casting: Refers to steel castings made in sand casting process. Sand casting is an another process that utilizes non-reusable sand molds to form steel castings. It is a common production method for steel components of all sizes, from a few ounces to several tons. Sand casting isn’t only versatile in the size of its products – it can also create exceptionally complex or detailed steel castings, and can be used to cast nearly any metal alloy.

Sand Casting process is recommended when the steel parts are large or not required for perfect surface finish. Due to its low production cost, the price of steel sand castings will be much more competitive than steel investment castings. So if the budget is limited and not enough for investment casting, you can consider steel sand casting as the method.

More information about investment casting vs sand casting…