subject: Casting Production - Processes, Costs And Companies [print this page] Dandong Foundry has been engaged in casting production for over 50 years, mainly manufacturing grey iron, ductile iron and cast steel products. Herein, we will briefly introduce the metal casting production processes and related costs.
Casting Production Processes
There are many different processes to produce metal castings. For examples, sand casting, die casting, lost wax investment casting, permanent mold casting, continuous casting, centrifugal casting and vacuum casting etc. As for sand casting processes, they could divided into green sand, resin sand, shell molding, water glass sand, lost foam casting etc.
Each casting process has their own advantages, disadvantages and production costs, so choosing which production process depends on the requirements, structural characters and target prices of your products.
Here are some photos for casting production processes, sand casting workshops are from Dandong Foundry, others are from the foundries nearby:Automatic Molding Production WorkshopManual Green Sand Casting ProductionResin Sand Casting Production WorkshopCast steel 2 Oxygen Sand Molding ProductionShell Molding ProcessLost Wax Water Glass Investment Casting WorkshopAluminum and Zinc Die Casting Production WorkshopCasting Production CostsThe casting production costs included several parts.1. Pig Iron Costs - Pig iron is the main material of iron castings, so they have taken large part of the total production costs. For example, if the gray iron casting price is 1.25 USD/kg, then the pig iron cost will be about 0.59 USD/kg. Therefore, if the pig iron price is unstable, then it will have big influence to the casting prices.2. Labor Costs - In the past, the labor costs may not be an important part, but after past years, the labor costs in China have been increased several times, therefore, they have affected the casting prices clearly now.3. Coal or Electricity Costs - The cupola needs foundry coal as the fuel, and medium frequency furnace needs electricity. Moreover, the heating treatment also caused the extra electricity costs. These costs are also important part for the production costs.4. Alloy and Nodulizer Costs - As for the high grades of ductile iron and alloy cast metals, the necessary alloys will be needed to add. As for the ductile iron materials, the nodulizer (nodulizing agent) will be needed.5. Extra Sand Costs - As for the green sand, since they are cheap and recyclable, so their costs will be small. But as for the resin sand, and shell molding processes, the sands will be more expensive.6. Machining Costs - If your parts need machining works, then you need to consider the machining costs.7. Painting and Packing Costs - There are many types of finish coating, painting, anti-rust oil protection, and there are several types of packing methods too. All these costs should be considered.The final production costs are comprised by above costs, the different requirements to them will cause the different casting prices. Please refer to cast iron and pig iron prices for the latest prices. Casting Production CompaniesThere are thousands of metal casting production companies in China, so we call them as iron foundries, steel foundries, aluminum foundries, copper foundries etc. Larger foundries may be able to produce two types of casting materials, but no company could produce all types of materials. It is because different materials will need different casting processes and equipments.Casting Production InternationalCasting production is a high pollution and high energy consumption industry. So, most of metal foundries are located in China and India. Of course, China government is closing the small foundries and controlling the pollution and energy consumption by some policies. But the export volume of metal castings from China is still very large. Most of large metal casting manufacturers could understand the international standards and requirements, and have their own exporting licenses. This article was from Dandong Foundry. For the whole article, please check Dandong Foundry Blog.by: galen
