What Are the Benefits of Steel Casting?

There are various steel fabrication techniques to choose from when you create parts or products. While many techniques work on steel in a solid form, you can also use casting solutions as an alternative.

How does casting work and what are the benefits of using it?

How Is Steel Cast?

Steel casting involves working with the metal in a liquid rather than solid form. Typically, you start by making moulds based on the part or product you want to create.

You then pour molten metal into the moulds. The metal takes on the interior shape as it fills the mould. It then solidifies and hardens as it cools.

Once cold, the part or product is already in its final form. Apart from any finishing work you need to do, it is often good to go.

Why Use Steel Casting?

If you're working with steel, then you want to be able to change the metal to your specification without weakening it. This isn't always easy when you work with solid metal.

For example, if you need to put a fold in a steel sheet, then bending the metal might weaken the sheet. You might lose some strength around the fold. It might break or crack more easily, especially if the metal is thin.

Plus, it isn't always easy to turn solid metal into a complex shape or design. Even if this is doable, you might need to run the metal through various processes to get the end result you need.

This adds to your production time. You might also have higher wastage costs if you can't exactly replicate workings on every part or product.

If you cast steel, then you create a new piece of metal with every mould. You don't need to worry about weakening a solid piece.

You can also create more complex shapes, sizes, and designs in a mould. When the metal is poured in, it automatically flows into all the right places to create the final cast. You can control composition and thickness much more easily, without compromising the strength of the finished product.

Plus, a mould gives you a guarantee of uniformity. Each part or product that comes out of a mould will look exactly the same as the rest. It will be exactly the right size and shape. You also save time by reducing the number of processes the metal has to go through before it is finished.

To find out more about casting and steel fabrication, contact a local professional.