Preface

Metal casting is a basic manufacturing process in which molten metal at a particular temperature is poured into a mold cavity of a particular shape and allowed to solidify completely. The solidified part is often called the casting, which is taken out by breaking the mold. Casting has the best design flexibility when compared to other manufacturing techniques such as rolling, forging, welding, stamping, and extrusion.

The metal casting process also offers advantages in the form of enabling the production and formation of attractive and aesthetic designs, as there is no restriction to the assembly of shapes. Castings or cast components are used in several industries like agriculture, defense, automotive, culinary, mining, construction, health care, and paper. Metals like aluminum, magnesium, copper alloys, tin, lead alloys, iron, and steel are cast in metallic and sand molds. The quality of cast metals and alloys is determined by casting properties like fluidity, shrinkage, porosity, surface finish, and resistance to crack formation.

Different types of casting processes have been developed to manufacture defect-free castings. Foundry technologists have consistently researched several casting techniques to further improve existing processes. Green sand molding mixtures have been tested to optimize the required sand properties to obtain castings of good quality. The molten metal flow is governed by the sand properties. Graphite morphology in cast iron is governed by the solidification rate and inoculation efficiency. Different casting processes produce different casting properties and microstructures in castings. This book discusses various metal casting processes used in the foundry industries. It discusses gravity die casting, semisolid slope casting technology, opportunities and recent trends of the squeeze casting process, novel modeling for molten metal flow in the mold cavity, green sand molding process, and technology of producing cast iron.

Casting Processes includes six chapters in four sections. Section 1 discusses the semi-solid casting and squeezes casting processes. Section 2 depicts the flowability of sand mixtures and liquid metal flow in mold cavities. Section 3 describes the gravity die casting process. Section 4 explains cast iron technology, including information on the morphology of graphite formation, properties, and application. Chapters in these sections discuss the different types of casting processes and their applications in detail.

I would like to thank IntechOpen for giving me the opportunity to serve as editor of this book.

**Dr. T.R. Vijayaram** Senior Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, BIST, BIHER, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

**1**

Section 1

Semi Solid Casting
