Pros and Cons for Sand Casting, Investment Casting,and Die Casting

                                  Pros and Cons for Sand Casting, Investment Casting,and Die Casting

Casting is the process of casting parts with required shape and performance by pouring molten metal liquid into the mold and cooling and solidification. Casting is a commonly used manufacturing method with low manufacturing cost and great process flexibility. It can obtain complex shapes and large castings, which accounts for a large proportion in mechanical manufacturing, such as 60-80% for machine tools, 25% for automobiles, and 50-60% for tractors. The following introduces the classification, advantages and disadvantages of common casting processes, and the principles of casting process selection

1. Sand casting
Sand casting: Steel, iron and most non-ferrous alloy castings can be obtained by sand casting.

(1) Process :


(2) Technical features:

① It is suitable for making blanks with complex shapes, especially with complex cavities;

② Wide adaptability and low cost;

③ For some materials with poor plasticity, such as cast iron, sand casting is the only forming process for manufacturing its parts or blanks.


(2) Application: automobile engine cylinder block, cylinder head, crankshaft and other castings.


2. Investment casting
Investment casting: usually refers to a casting scheme in which a pattern is made of fusible materials, a mold shell is made by covering several layers of refractory materials on the surface of the pattern, and then the pattern is melted out of the mold shell, so as to obtain a mold without parting surface, which can be filled with sand after being baked at high temperature. It is often called "lost wax casting".

(1) Process flow:


(2) Advantages:
① High dimensional and geometric accuracy;
② High surface roughness;
③ It is able to cast castings with complex appearance, and the cast alloys are not limited.
(3) Disadvantages: complicated process and high cost.

(4) Application: It is applicable to the production of small parts with complex shape, high precision requirements, or difficult to carry out other processing, such as turbine engine blades.


3. Die casting
Die casting: It is to use high pressure to press liquid metal into a precision metal mold cavity at high speed, and the liquid metal is cooled and solidified under pressure to form a casting.

(1) Process flow:

(2) Advantages:

① During die casting, the metal liquid bears high pressure and fast flow rate;
② Good product quality, stable size and good interchangeability;
③ High production efficiency and more die casting dies used;
④ It is suitable for mass production with good economic benefits.

(3) Disadvantages:
① The castings are easy to produce small air holes and shrinkage porosity;
② Die castings have low plasticity and should not work under impact load and vibration;
③ When high melting point alloy die casting, the mold life is low, which affects the expansion of die casting production.

(4) Application: Die castings were first used in automobile industry and instrument industry, and then gradually expanded to various industries, such as agricultural machinery, machine tool industry, electronic industry, national defense industry, computers, medical devices, clocks, cameras, and daily hardware.


Choosing the right casting method depends on factors such as the desired production volume, part complexity, material requirements, and budget considerations. Each method has its own niche applications and is well-suited to specific manufacturing needs.

ZheJiang Dongrun Casting Industry Co,.Ltd was built in 1995, We have been in the casting industry for more than 25 years. No matter what type of molding you need done, we are the right supplier for your jobs. Unlike other of our competition, we offer four types of castings.

        ❖Sand casting

        ❖Gravity Die Casting

        ❖High pressure Die casting

        ❖Low pressure casting

Dongrun Casting have 20000 square meters facility houses and 200 production & test equipment, From quotation and tooling design to casting and finished machining, we  can work with you at every stage. We serves wide range of industries-from Fortune 500 corporations to small and midsize OEMs. Our products includes:

Browse our online showroom to see what we can do for you. And then E-mail：dongrun@dongruncasting.com us your specifications or inquiries today