Aluminium casting: Gravity die, sand and high pressure CASTING: Inside the FOUNDRY

Have you ever seen aluminium being cast? I hadn't until I went to pay Alucast a visit in Wednesbury. They are experts in all types of aluminium casting, gravity die, sand and high pressure casting. It's amazing to watch molten metal flow. If you are wondering what the differences are with all the types of casting, I'll do my best to give it a go to explain. Gravity die casting uses gravity (clues in the name) and typically you steel tool to make moulds. The advantage is you can make plenty of parts out of one tool, the disadvantage is getting steel mould tools is expensive. Then you have sand casting, where the moulds are made out of sand. The advantage is cost and speed but the disadvantage is they are single use. Then there is high pressure die casting. The advantage is you can make intricate parts which plenty of detail and you can make loads of parts out of one tool. The disadvantage tool is really expensive to begin with. I hope that helps explain a little bit about casting. This was actually my first factory tour and I loved it. It was great to be inside a foundry!