stainless steel casting processes
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The following are the main stainless steel casting processes:
Stainless Steel Centrifugal Casting: Centrifugal casting is one of the most outstanding casting methods. Unlike other processes that utilize pressure and gravity, it employs the centrifugal force of solids. Therefore, it is convenient to create hollow structures and cylindrical pieces.
Ideally, during this process, a cylindrical mold is built and centrifugal force is used to create the casting. Castings are permanent metals, usually made of iron or steel.
You can obtain centrifugal castings using two methods: vertical centrifugal casting and horizontal centrifugal casting. Both vary according to the tilted position of the cylinder. For the former, you can use a variety of casting machines to turn the cylinder vertically. On the other hand, the machine rotates the form horizontally for the former.
Stainless Steel Sand Casting Process: Create custom parts using sand molds. Sand castings are beneficial because they can withstand high temperatures.
Stainless Steel Investment Casting: The mold cavity in this process is made of foam or wax. The shape is generally coated with a refractory material to form a mold. Thereafter, the wax melts as the molten metal flows into the mold. Finally, the casting cools and solidifies.
Stainless steel continuous casting: also known as continuous casting. It is commonly used in manufacturing industrial processes to mold a specific length of stainless steel. To achieve this, you feed molten steel into a trough tundish and out through a vertical die. The mold is equipped with a cooling system for cooling and solidifying molten steel. The main advantages of this method are minimal material waste, high yields, and the ability to produce castings of superior quality.
Stainless Steel Die Casting Process: This is one of the most ideal and cost-effective manufacturing methods for producing high-end metal castings with near-net-shape designs. This method of die casting involves inserting high-pressure molten stainless steel into a mold cavity. To create the mold cavity, you can use a tool stool mold with the appropriate desired shape. After the molten metal fills the mold, it is rapidly cooled and solidified to form the required mesh casting.
Stainless Steel Corner Castings: The final product of this process is corner castings, which are mainly used to lift shipping containers. They are sold in sets of eight.
Stainless Steel Lost Wax Casting: This involves injecting molten stainless steel into a wax casting. The waxed model is then encapsulated in a mold. After this, the wax model is heated to melt the wax and drained when the shape is ready. This method is called lost wax casting because the wax is removed.
Basically, you can prepare dewaxed models in two ways: direct and indirect. For the former, you use a wax pattern to make a model, while for the latter, you use a copy of the wax pattern.
Stainless Steel Die Casting
There is no doubt that die casting is a complex and precise process that produces dimensionally accurate stainless steel parts. In this method, reusable molds called dies are used; hence the name die casting. Apart from this, this casting process also uses various equipment such as die casting machines and furnaces.Basically, this casting method involves melting stainless steel in a high temperature furnace. Then, the molten steel is poured into the mold and allowed to cool and solidify.
There are two types of die casting machines to choose from: The first is a hot chamber machine that produces alloys with low melting points. The last one is the cold room machine. This is a die casting machine for the production of high melting point alloys.
Benefits of Stainless Steel Investment Casting
Stainless steel precision castings of different alloys offer many advantages such as:Superior Corrosion Resistance
flexible size
Tight Tolerance Levels
heat resistance
Ability to produce complex shapes
Requires minimal surface preparation after casting