Sand casting: Uses silica sand and binder to create the mold. Suitable for steel, iron, and most non-ferrous alloys. Low cost, highly adaptable, suitable for single-piece and small-batch production, but surface and dimensional accuracy are relatively low.
Investment casting: Uses a fusible material to create a pattern, coats it with refractory material to form a shell, melts away the pattern, and then bakes and pours the finished product at high temperature. It can achieve high precision (±0.05mm), complex internal structures, and excellent surface quality, and is widely used in aero-engine blades, medical devices, etc.
Centrifugal casting: Injects liquid metal into a rotating mold, which solidifies under centrifugal force. Suitable for tubular, sleeve, and ring castings (such as cylinder liners and rolls). The castings have high density and few inclusions, eliminating the need for a core.
Pressure casting: Presses liquid or semi-solid metal into a metal mold at high speed under high pressure. Suitable for mass production of thin-walled, complex, small castings (such as automotive parts). Good surface finish, but high equipment investment.
Low-pressure casting: Molten metal is filled from the bottom under low pressure (typically 0.01–0.1 MPa) and solidification is completed under pressure. The casting has a dense structure and few defects, commonly used for aluminum alloy wheels, cylinder heads, etc.
Lost foam casting: A foam plastic model is embedded in dry sand. During pouring, the model vaporizes, and the metal occupies its space. No parting line or sand core is needed, suitable for complex structural parts, clean and efficient.
Continuous casting: Molten metal is continuously poured into the crystallizer and solidified while being pulled out. Suitable for long and strip-shaped castings (such as copper rods and aluminum bars). Dense structure, high production efficiency.
Gravity casting: Molten metal fills the mold by gravity, without external pressure. Simple equipment, low internal stress in castings, good mechanical properties, widely used in automotive, aerospace, and other fields.