Iron casting from China
Iron casting is one of the most important casting processes in China. From Chunqiu period, clever chinese works started to make components from iron by casting process. Some famous iron casting components, such as iron plough share,iron shovels, iron sickles,iron chisels, etc.
Compare to steel castings, iron castings give the below advantages,
a.Good liquidity
Iron materials are with good liquidity during casting/pouring process.This can help to reduce or avoid the insufficent casting, shrikanges and other casting defects that might caused by bad liquidity.
b.Cost superiority
Costs of iron materials are lower than steel, aluminum and other materials. If choose iron as material to cast components, it will help to save production costs.
c.High wear resistance properties
Castings made from irons are with good wear resistance properties. So, if wear function is important for the castings, it's much better to choose iron materials.
d.High compressive capacity
Iron castings are with high compressive capacity. Thus, shape of castings can be kept well in condition of high pressure.
Due to the above advantages of iron materials, customers choose iron to cast lots of components for their equipments or systems.
Material grades used.
In our foundry, we mainly make grey iron, ductile iron and high chrome iron.
1.Grey iron
Carbon percentage in grey iron is high, about 2.7%-4.0%. The carbon elemens in grey iron mainly exist in state of flake graphite. The fracture surface is grey color. So, it's called grey iron.
Compressive strength and harndess is close to carbon steel. The shock absorber property is good. Since the existing of flake graphite, wear resistance of grey iron castings are very good. Grey irons are good for casting and also for machining processes.
In China, grey iron grades are specified with 'HT'.Such as QT250, the 250 show the min. tensile strength.
2.Ductile iron
Ductile iron is achieved by spheroidizing grey iron. After spheroidizing, the graphite is in shape of balls. So, the spheroidized iron is called ductile iron. Carbon elements are exist inside the material in free state. The fracture surface is silver grey color.
Compare with grey iron, ductile iron are with good strength, toughness and better plasticity.In China, ductile iron grades are specified with 'QT'.Such as QT500-7, the 500 show the min. tensile strength, and 7 shows the min. elongation of the material.
3. High chrome iron
Iron with a high percentage of chrome added, called high chrome iron. High chrome iron castings are mainly used as the components require for very high wear resitance.The hardness can be 500HB, even without heat treament. But the impact property of high chrom iron castings is not so good.
Production processes for iron castings.
In our foundry, iron castings can be made in lost foam casting process or sand casting processes. Process choosing depends on size and requirements of the iron castings.
1.Iron casting in lost foam casting process
In our foundry, we choose to cast the iron castings with small sizes in lost foam casting process. Lost for casting is also only process of investment casting. Such process can cast iron castings with weight ranges from 0.1 to 50kgs. Dimensions of iron castings are much accurate made in lost foam casting process.
Iron grades used are ductile iron, grey iron and high chrome iron.
2.Iron casting in sand casting process
Besides lost foam cast iron castings, we also cast the irons in sand casting process.
Sand casting process is the widely used process to cast iron parts in our foundry and also in China.
If the requirements on dimensions and surface finish are not high, we will choose green sand casting process to make the iron castings. If the requirements on dimensions and surface finish are higher, we can choose to cast the iron castings by precoated sand casting process.
Weight of iron castings can be controlled between 0.1kg to tons. Specific sand casting processes will be choosen according to structure and size of the iron castings.
Application of iron castings
Iron castings are with a wide application in China. Currently, the iron castings made in our foundry are widely use in industries of building, hardware, production equipments, construction equipments, engineering machineries building. Some iron castings are also used to make machining equipments, vessels, aerospace, cars, electricity equipments, lighting instruments components.
If you are planning to source iron castings from China, please contact us. We can quote and produce according to drawings or samples from you. Our foundry will supply you qualified iron castings and good services.