For a new product, after designing and prototyping, choosing proper manufacturing processes for components is the most important thing. In this article, two old manufacturing processes, metal forging and sand casting parts will be introduced. The goal of this article is to help you understand them better and use them properly.

 

Metal Forging

Metal forging is an old metalworking process, in which part is shaped under pressure. Traditionally this process involves a hammer and anvil. With the development of forging technology, many kinds of forging appeared. Nowadays, forging can produce parts ranging in size of a small bolt to a large compressor blade for turbo-fan engine.

 

Sand Casting

Sand casting is another old metalworking process whereby final part is obtained by molten metal solidifying in the cavity of a sand mold. Sand casting parts in mechanical products account for a large proportion. It is not difficult for us to find components making by aluminum sand casting in our daily life, such as hydraulic connectors. Those sand casting parts can be easily bought in hardware market, which is very convenient for consumers.

 

Advantages and Disadvantages

There are several advantages of metal forging. First, parts made by metal forging are stronger than sand casting parts, which are widely used in applications requiring high strength. Second, the resistance to impact and fatigue of a metal forging part is good because the grain in it is continuous. In addition, modern forging technology makes it possible to get end part directly with precision tolerances. However, every coin has two sides. If you want to forge some complicated parts, metal forging is an expensive process because the dies are expensive and the other tools cost accordingly, especially when the quantity of production is very small. Therefore, forging is usually use in long-run and mass production. Besides the environment offorging parts workshop is very bad and the labor intensity is very high.

 

As regards metal casting, the advantages can be seen as follows. First, the cost is relatively low because necessary tools required in this process are very simple and inexpensive. Second, sand casting parts can be more intricate, which can make the construction be simpler. Third, some very large and heavy metal parts can be made by sand casting. Moreover, large numbers of sand casting parts can be produced very rapidly with very low cost. That is why a variety of aluminum sand casting parts are sold at a very low price. The negative aspect of sand casting parts is they are not so strong as forging parts, so it is not proper to use them in applications requiring high strength.