Methods
Casting
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Casting shapes metal or another material by melting it and pouring the liquid into a mold, where it cools and solidifies into the mold cavity shape. It is one of the oldest metalworking methods, used since antiquity for tools, weapons and statuary, and, since the Industrial Revolution, for complex machine parts too intricate or too large to forge or machine economically.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearLost-wax casting is attested in Mesopotamia and the Balkans from roughly the fourth millennium BCE, among the earliest known metal-casting techniques. Core PrincipleMelting a material and pouring it into a shaped mold, letting it solidify into the mold form, then removing and finishing the solidified casting. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Brass, Materials Brass fittings and instruments are commonly shaped by casting.
Bronze, Materials Bronze was one of the earliest metals widely worked through casting, including lost-wax casting.
Cast Iron, Materials Cast iron flows easily when molten and is named for how readily it is cast into shapes.
Forging, Methods Casting and forging are the two principal ways of shaping a metal part, one through a liquid mold and one through solid deformation.
Molten pig iron tapped from a blast furnace is frequently cast directly into shapes.
In Field
Sources
1. Casting (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationIntroductory sectionQuote, Introductory section
casting is a process in which a liquid metal is delivered into a mold (usually by a crucible) that contains a negative impression.
2. A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954
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