3 Things to Consider When Choosing a Metal Casting Foundry

To help you succeed with any type of metal casting project, it’s important to select a metal casting foundry with the capabilities you need. The ideal foundry produces high-quality, cost-effective components with fast turnarounds. Read on to learn how to choose the best foundry based on its location, expertise, resources, and capabilities.

What Is a Metal Casting Foundry?

Metal casting foundries use various casting techniques to produce metal components. All of these techniques involve melting the metal and dropping it into a unique mold to form the desired part. Depending on the required volume, material characteristics, and complexity of the part, a foundry may choose between the following common casting processes:

• Sand Casting: This traditional process uses sand molds to form the desired part shape.
• Die Casting: Foundries inject molten metal into a die, accurately forming complex components under high pressures.
• Investment Casting: This process produces high-precision, intricate parts with tight tolerances and good surface finishes.
• Gravity Casting: Gravity casting involves pouring melted metal into a shaped mold without exerting pressure.

Benefits of a Metal Casting Foundry

With the help of the right metal casting foundry behind your casting project, you can benefit from:

• Adaptability: Whether you need to fabricate small, decorative metal pieces or complex, structural components, foundry casting makes it easy to do so using a range of metals, including steel, iron, brass, aluminum, and cast iron.
• Efficiency: The right metal foundry can produce castings with consistent efficiency to provide fast turnarounds for high-volume projects.
• Recyclability: Metal castings can be recycled, melted down to create new components. Thus, metal casting is a sustainable, circular process that can make use of scrap metal.
• Processes Metals With High Melting Points: Certain metals like titanium and steel offer superior durability but can be difficult to fabricate with other methods because of their high melting points. However, metal casting is suitable for these types of alloys.
• Quality and Precision: When you choose the best metal foundry for your needs, you’ll get quality parts with the level of precision your project requires. This eliminates the need for rework and contributes to a high-quality end product.
• Increased Total Project Value: Metal foundries can combine multiple separate components into a single casting with uniform properties throughout, strengthening the reliability of the overall assembly.
• Cost-Effectiveness: The lower cost of fabricating parts using casting processes translates to cost savings for the end customer.

3 Things to Consider When Choosing a Metal Casting Foundry

Here are the main factors to look for in the ideal metal casting foundry.

1. Industry Experience

Choose a metal foundry with specialized expertise in your industry or application. They should be able to understand the unique challenges of your project and select the right casting process to complete it. Also check that they have strict quality control measures in place to produce consistently superior-quality components.

2. Capabilities and Capacity

Determine whether your chosen metal foundry has the capacity to handle your project, especially if you’re working with high volumes or tight deadlines. Review each prospective foundry’s equipment and resources to help determine if they have the capabilities to meet your needs. Material availability is another key factor here, as the foundry should have ample metal alloys to produce your parts.

3. Location and Logistics

Consider the metal casting foundry’s location, as closer proximity to your facility can help you save time and money on transportation. Your casting provider should have efficient logistics management for storage, inventory, and shipping. The ideal foundry will also be able to work closely with you and maintain clear, consistent communications.

Reach Out to Explore Midwest Metal Products’ Capabilities

For the best metal casting solutions, turn to the experts at Midwest Metal Products. Our skilled metal foundry employees and fully equipped facility can provide you with a customized and durable casting solution based on your unique requirements. Lean on our industry expertise, extensive technical capabilities, and logistics solutions to get your project done right the first time, every time.

For more information about our processes and capabilities, contact us today. You may also request a quote to get started with a custom solution.

Top Three Metal Materials Used in Casting: Full Guide

From structural components and aerospace parts to consumer goods and decorative items, versatile metal casting processes create complex shapes from molten metal through high-volume production. As casting is compatible with a broad spectrum of material options, you can select the one that best fits your product requirements, part design, application, and budget. Learn more about the techniques and common materials involved in casting to help you choose a metal with confidence.

About Casting Metal

Metal casting encompasses several controlled processes of pouring molten metal into a hollow mold so that, as it cools, the material hardens into a preconfigured shape.

Types of Metal Casting Processes

Examples of metal casting techniques include:

• Sand casting. Utilizing a sand mold is the most common metal casting technique.
• Die casting. With a metal mold, or die, foundries can generate complex parts with precision.
• Investment casting. Investment or lost wax casting employs a refractory material-coated wax pattern as a mold.
• Centrifugal casting. By pouring metal into a mold as it turns, the motion causes material flow in an outward direction. The metal solidifies against the mold’s walls as it cools.
• Continuous casting. Also with a moving mold, this casting technique uses the ongoing motion to create parts in lengthy, continuous sections.

Advantages of Casting

Each casting method has its own benefits and ideal uses, but they share the following key advantages:

• Complex shapes. Casting processes can create geometrically complex and intricately detailed parts that other manufacturing techniques cannot.
• Large order volumes. The casting method is perfect for high-volume production of uniform components.
• Cost-effectiveness. A side benefit of being able to produce large quantities is that casting can be an economical manufacturing choice, lowering per-part costs.
• Material options. With versatile metal casting, you can choose from an array of different materials to suit your needs.

Which Type of Metal Is Used in the Casting Process?

To determine which type of casting material is right for you, select a material that will deliver the required properties for your product. For example, evaluate a material for its strength, weight, resistance capabilities, price, and workability. Ferrous metals like steel and iron can lend your product impressive strength and durability, while non-ferrous varieties such as aluminum and zinc tend to offer good machinability.

Before we get into the top three types, we’ll first discuss other common metal casting materials:

• Stainless steel. This steel variety is strong, inert, and hygienic, making it ideal for anything from structural components to food processing and healthcare equipment.
• Abrasion resistant cast iron or chrome and nickel hard irons. These iron varieties are made with higher concentrations of the alloy elements to enhance wear characteristics, used in wear liners, pumps, piping, and other applications that need great wear properties.
• Brass. Malleable brass offers good machinability. Its corrosion resistance makes it appropriate for plumbing fixtures, while its pleasing aesthetics lend it to applications ranging from doorknobs to musical instruments.
• Bronze. This copper-tin alloy is a strong metal variety, resisting general wear and corrosion. It has both functional and aesthetic uses, from gears and bearings to artistic sculptures.
• Zinc. Compatible with the die casting process for its low melting point, zinc is good for hardware, vehicle parts, and even children’s toys.

Top Three Metal Materials Used in Casting

Which metals, then, are your top metal casting options?

1. Aluminum

Among the lightest and most abundant of metals, aluminum has a great strength-to-weight ratio and — given its superior machinability — can help reduce your production costs. Being lightweight and corrosion-resistant makes it highly popular for aircraft and vehicle parts in which weight reduction and durable construction are of great importance. Aluminum is available in many different alloys, each one unique and possessing its own benefits, so it’s a versatile choice with both indoor and outdoor applications.

2. Steel

Steel is primarily prized for its strength. While it can also be used in vehicle parts, steel components are reliably durable enough to handle structural and industrial equipment projects, as well. Similarly to aluminum, steel is flexible in its applications because of its numerous available alloys, such as stainless, carbon, and alloy steel. However, when discussing the material itself rather than its machining process, steel is a more affordable material option than aluminum or metals like copper.

3. Cast Iron

One of its primary benefits where metal casting is concerned is that cast iron has good fluidity when it’s in its molten state, facilitating part production in complex shapes. Cast iron parts can handle applications that will expose them to friction as the metal offers exceptional resistance to wear. This tough material is also thermally conductive, allowing parts like engine blocks to conduct heat. As for pricing, cast iron typically beats out both aluminum and steel, making it another economical choice.

Quality Castings for All Metal Types by Midwest Metal

At Midwest Metal Products (MMP), our foundry provides quality engineering, casting, heat-treating, and finishing services. We’re dedicated to adding value for our customers, enhancing product reliability, and reducing part count. Contact us to learn about our casting services and which metal is right for your project, or request a quote today.