Materials Atlas DefMetrix

Steel · Product form

Steel Castings

Who pours castings in this alloy, and can they hold my geometry and pour weight?

What it is

Parts produced by pouring molten metal into a mold. For reactive metals this requires vacuum or inert atmosphere melting and specialized mold systems, which is why the qualified supplier list is short.

Typical dimensions
Grams to several hundred pounds; envelope limited by furnace and mold capacity.
Also known as
cast parts, investment castings, precision castings, cast components

Suppliers

Grouped by what they actually are. A mill and a distributor answer different needs.

Mills and producers 3

Companies that manufacture this form. Mill direct means longer lead times and mill minimums, with full melt traceability.

  • Milwaukee, WI · Converter
    10 lb to 4,000 lb

    Steel sand castings from 10 to 4,000 lb, from an integrated pattern shop, foundry and machine shop. Badger publishes its moulding method, which most foundries do not: airset NO-BAKE, giving closer dimensional tolerance and a cleaner surface than green sand at higher cost per mould. Casting weight range 10 to 4,000 lb. No AS9100, NADCAP or military specification qualification is claimed. Defense is one of several markets served.

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  • Attica, IN · Converter

    Carbon and low to medium alloy steel castings, with military among the industries served. The moulding method is not published, so this is recorded as a casting product rather than a named casting process. The company site returned 403, so this rests on directory and trade listings.

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  • Lake Geneva, WI · Converter

    Near-net investment castings in plain carbon and low alloy steel.

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Production methods

The same form, purchased as tolling on your own material.

Investment Casting 1

Building a ceramic shell around a wax pattern, melting the wax out and pouring metal into the resulting cavity. For reactive metals the pour is done under vacuum or inert atmosphere against specially formulated shells.

  • Lake Geneva, WI · Converter

    Investment casting of plain carbon and low alloy steels, plus rapid prototype casting. Two Wisconsin plants. No casting size or weight range is published and no defense qualification is claimed. Check before treating this as a qualified source.

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Sand Casting 1

Pouring metal into a mold formed in bonded sand. The lowest tooling cost route to a casting and the only practical one for very large parts, at the cost of surface finish and dimensional tolerance.

  • Milwaukee, WI · Converter
    10 lb to 4,000 lb

    Airset no-bake sand casting of carbon and alloy steels. Badger publishes its moulding method, which most foundries do not: airset NO-BAKE, giving closer dimensional tolerance and a cleaner surface than green sand at higher cost per mould. Casting weight range 10 to 4,000 lb. No AS9100, NADCAP or military specification qualification is claimed. Defense is one of several markets served.

    source

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