CASTING Hassan Sarwar ME100 4M-10C Oct 18, 2005
OBJECTIVE: Objective of this presentation is to give an introduction on the process of casting, which is widely used in mechanical engineering.
WHAT IS CASTING? It is a process in which a hot liquid material is introduced into a mold of a specific shape. After it cools down, it forms the specific shape of the mold.
Where is it used? This process is used to produce a fabricated object, a part, or casing. It is widely used in automobile manufacture industry, such as the casting of engine blocks or cylinder heads. It is also used to form various types of liquids, meltable plastics and materials.
Four elements of Casting: There are four elements of casting: Pattern: It is the original template from which the mould is prepared. Mold: It is the place with a specific shape, where we put our liquid metal to duplicate the shape of mould.
Four Elements of Casting Continued Cores: Cores are basically used to produce tunnels and holes in our shape. Part: The part is the final product of this process.
CASTING WITH RESPECT TO DIFFERENTIAL What is differential? Differential is a device which consists of gears in a car, and it proves equally torque to the driving wheels.
How is it related to casting? Fig:
How is it related to casting? Continued In this picture, you can see it is consisted of different type of components. The casting here is used to create the component of this differential. They took a material in liquid form, and put it into a mold, which eventually looks like this component. Thus, when the liquid is solid, it forms this shape.
TYPES OF CASTING There are many different types of casting. However, I am only going to talk about few types of casting used in manufacturing because of the time limit.
SAND CASTING: In sand casting, sand is the main source for the casting. It is fast and requires only few days to dry. It is the oldest yet the best technique of casting. It is usually used for processing low- temperature steel and aluminium, magnesium and nickel alloys.
PLASTER CASTING: In plastic casting, plaster is used for casting. It requires less than a week to prepare. The plaster compound usually consists of 70-80% of gypsum and % strengthener and water. It is used to prepare metals such as Al, Zn or copper based alloys.
SHELL MOLDING: In this type of casting, a mixture of sand and 3-6% resin holds the grains together. This type of casting takes weeks to get ready. It is usually used to create objects from aluminium and magnesium.
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