In metal casting expandable molds are very common. As it name states that in expandable mold casting processes, the obtained mold to cast metal or material inside the mold cavity is spent or demoslihed to obtain cast part from it. The meajor disadvantage for expandable processes is, you need to create molds in every cycle of processes. Because of this reason, expandable mold casting solutions generally are not suitable for serial production manner.
With the changing process parameters, there are major expandable mold casting processes avaliable. You can find out vast of informations about the types of expandable mold casting processes below.
What Are The Types Of Expandable Mold Casting Processes?
- Sand Casting Operation: Sand casting process is one of the most known and most used metal casting process in industry. The mold structures is created from sand with the help of patterns. Mold cavity, gatings are designed specially for every parts in sand casting. There are lots of kinds of terminology about sand casting, and it is a professional area for engineers. You can find lots of informations about sand casting from the given link.
- Investment Casting Process: In investment casting process, bunch of patterns of same product are produced from wax. These wax patterns are combined with wax branches that they will be sprues and gates after the mold is obtained. This wax is dipped into a slurry that includes finer grains of sand and binders. When the wax is fully coated with this slurry, the wax is melted through the application of heat. But first, the solidification of coating must be waited. When the wax is melted fully, the mold and sprues are ready to cast metal inside it. Click on given link to find further informations about process parameters, advantages and disadvantages of investment casting method.
- Shell Molding Process: In shell molding process, mold shell is obtained from resin and sand mixture also. Mold shell is obtained with the help of heated metaş pattern. The two separate halves of shell molds is obtained with the laying of resin and sand mixture on metal pattern. By the curing of resin, the shell is obtained. These two halve of shells are combined to each other to obtain shell mold. Click on the given link to find out further information about shell molding process steps, parameters, advantages and disadvantages.
- Vacuum Molding Process: Vacuum molding process is a very specific process that very different principle is used. It is developed in Japan first. And the sand without binders or resins is vacuumed with a very specific mechanism to obtain mold cavity. Reclaimation of sand is very easy in vacuum molding process. But there are drawbacks that are resulting from some process parameters of vacuum molding. Click on the given link to find out furthet information about vacuum molding process mechanism and process parameters.
- Plaster And Ceramic Mold Casting: In plaster mold casting process, mold materials are quite different from other expandable mold casting processes. In here, plaster(Paris) or ceramic is used as mold material. Plaster is mixed with water and other additives, and applied on metal or plastic patterns. So, mold cavity from plaster is obtained to cast metals inside it. With plaster and ceramic mold casting processes, intricate parts machinery parts can be produced. But, they have very important drawbacks to consider, especially plaster mold casting process. Click on the given link to see drawbacks and process parameters of plaster and ceramic mold casting process.
- Expanded Polystyrene Molding Process: In expanded polystyrene molding process, the pattern of the cast product is produced from polystyrene foam. Sand is packed around the obtained polystyrene foam to create mold cavity. And molten metal or material is cast on the polystyrene pattern which is inside the sand mold cavity. The foam melts, and the place of foam replaced with molten metal, inside the sand mold cavity. Click on the given link for detailed information about polystyrene molding process, applications, advantages and disadvantages and process parameters.
These 6 types of expandable mold casting processes are mainly used in metal industry. They have very specific professions inside them, and the selection of a proper casting process for your parts is very important thing to be a good engineer. You must consider the process parameters in the selection of a proper casting process for your part;
- Material specifications for processes,
- Number of parts to be produced,
- The production manner such as serial or small procuction rates,
- Size of the part,
- Complexity of the parts.
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