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Factory that produces metal castings
metal foundries

A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron. However, other metals, such as bronze, brass, steel, magnesium, and zinc, are also used to produce castings in foundries. In this process, parts of desired shapes and sizes can be formed. Foundries are one of the largest contributors to the manufacturing recycling movement, melting and recasting millions of tons of scrap metal every year to create new durable goods. Moreover, many foundries use sand in their molding process. These foundries often use, recondition, and reuse sand, which is another form of recycling.

In metalworking, casting involves pouring liquid metal into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowing it to cool and solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods.

In the casting process, a pattern is made in the shape of the desired part. Simple designs can be made in a single piece or solid pattern. More complex designs are made in two parts, called split patterns. A split pattern has a top or upper section, called a cope, and a bottom or lower section called a drag. Both solid and split patterns can have cores inserted to complete the final part shape. Cores are used to create hollow areas in the mold that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. Where the cope and drag separates is called the parting line. When making a pattern it is best to taper the edges so that the pattern can be removed without breaking the mold. This is called draft. The opposite of draft is an undercut where there is part of the pattern under the mold material, making it impossible to remove the pattern without damaging the mold. The pattern is made of wax, wood, plastic, or metal. The molds are constructed by several different processes dependent upon the type of foundry, metal to be poured, quantity of parts to be produced, size of the casting, and complexity of the casting. These mold processes include:
Sand castingGreen or resin bonded sand mold. Lost foam castingPolystyrene pattern with a mixture of ceramic and sand mold. Investment castingWax or similar sacrificial pattern with a ceramic mold. Ceramic mold castingPlaster mold. V process castingVacuum with thermoformed plastic to form sand molds. No moisture, clay or resin required. Die castingMetal mold. Billet (ingot) castingSimple mold for producing ingots of metal, normally for use in other foundries. Loam moldinga built up mold used for casting large objects, such as cannon, steam engine cylinders, and bells.

In a foundry, molten metal is poured into molds. Pouring can be accomplished with gravity, or it may be assisted with a vacuum or pressurized gas. Many modern foundries use robots or automatic pouring machines to pour molten metal. Traditionally, molds were poured by hand using ladles.

The solidified metal component is then removed from its mold. Where the mold is sand based, this can be done by shaking or tumbling. This frees the casting from the sand, which is still attached to the metal runners and gates — which are the channels through which the molten metal traveled to reach the component itself.

Degating is the removal of the heads, runners, gates, and risers from the casting. Runners, gates, and risers may be removed using cutting torches, bandsaws, or ceramic cutoff blades. For some metal types, and with some gating system designs, the sprue, runners, and gates can be removed by breaking them away from the casting with a sledge hammer or specially designed knockout machinery. Risers must usually be removed using a cutting method (see above) but some newer methods of riser removal use knockoff machinery with special designs incorporated into the riser neck geometry that allow the riser to break off at the right place. The gating system required to produce castings in a mold yields leftover metal — including heads, risers, and sprue (sometimes collectively called sprue) — that can exceed 50% of the metal required to pour a full mold. Since this metal must be remelted as salvage, the yield of a particular gating configuration becomes an important economic consideration when designing various gating schemes, to minimize the cost of excess sprue, and thus overall melting costs.

Heat treating is a group of industrial and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are also used in the manufacture of many other materials, such as glass. Heat treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve a desired result such as hardening or softening of a material. Heat treatment techniques include annealing, case hardening, precipitation strengthening, tempering, and quenching. Although the term "heat treatment" applies only to processes where the heating and cooling are done for the specific purpose of altering properties intentionally, heating and cooling often occur incidentally during other manufacturing processes such as hot forming or welding.

After degating and heat treating, sand or other molding media may remain adhered to the casting. To remove any mold remnants, the surface is cleaned using a blasting process. This means a granular media will be propelled against the surface of the casting to mechanically knock away the adhering sand. The media may be blown with compressed air, or may be hurled using a shot wheel. The cleaning media strikes the casting surface at high velocity to dislodge the mold remnants (for example, sand, slag) from the casting surface. Numerous materials may be used to clean cast surfaces, including steel, iron, other metal alloys, aluminium oxides, glass beads, walnut shells, baking powder, and many others. The blasting media is selected to develop the color and reflectance of the cast surface. Terms used to describe this process include cleaning, bead blasting, and sand blasting. Shot peening may be used to further work harden and finish the surface.

The final step in the process of casting usually involves grinding, sanding, or machining the component in order to achieve the desired dimensional accuracies, physical shape, and surface finish. Removing the remaining gate material, called a gate stub, is usually done using a grinder or sander. These processes are used because their material removal rates are slow enough to control the amount of material being removed. These steps are done prior to any final machining. After grinding, any surfaces that require tight dimensional control are machined. Many castings are machined in CNC milling centers. The reason for this is that these processes have better dimensional capability and repeatability than many casting processes. However, it is not uncommon today for castings to be used without machining. A few foundries provide other services before shipping cast products to their customers. It is common to paint castings to prevent corrosion and improve visual appeal. Some foundries assemble castings into complete machines or sub assemblies. Other foundries weld multiple castings or wrought metals together to form a finished product. More and more, finishing processes are being performed by robotic machines, which eliminate the need for a human to physically grind or break parting lines, gating material, or feeders. Machines can reduce risk of injury to workers and lower costs for consumables — while also increasing productivity. They also limit the potential for human error and increase repeatability in the quality of grinding.

Casting processes simulation uses numerical methods to calculate cast component quality considering mold filling, solidification and cooling, and provides a quantitative prediction of casting mechanical properties, thermal stresses and distortion. Simulation accurately describes a cast component's quality up front before production starts. The casting rigging can be designed with respect to the required component properties. This has benefits beyond a reduction in pre production sampling, as the precise layout of the complete casting system also leads to energy, material, and tooling savings. The software supports the user in component design, the determination of melting practice and casting methoding through to pattern and mold making, heat treatment, and finishing. This saves costs along the entire casting manufacturing route. Casting process simulation was initially developed at universities starting from the early '70s, mainly in Europe and in the U. S., and is regarded as the most important innovation in casting technology over the last 50 years. Since the late '80s, commercial programs (such as PoligonSoft, AutoCAST and Magma) are available which make it possible for foundries to gain new insight into what is happening inside the mold or die during the casting process.