Manufacturers tend to use casting when considering cost performance and higher product strength. However, it also has disadvantages, such as material waste.
You may be familiar with powder metallurgy (PM), renowned for its ability to rapidly produce complex parts.
How to choose these two manufacturing processes?
If you look forward to comparing powder metallurgy vs. casting, you are at the right place. In this blog, we will focus on the following topics：
Casting and powder metallurgy both use molds to shape raw materials into parts. Both can produce net shape or near-net shape parts.
What sets them apart greatly is that the casting process melts metal to form parts, while powder metallurgy forms parts below the melting point.
Powder metallurgy is a process that creates metal components by heating compacted metal powders just below their melting point.
Casting process is to introduce molten metal into a mold to form the desired shape of the part. It is an ancient manufacturing process, with the earliest surviving castings dating back to 3200 BC.
Sand casting uses sand molds to create parts. These molds are usually more cost-effective and sufficiently refractory.
Die casting produces cast parts by forcing molten metal into a mold under high pressure. Die casting can produce components with a very good surface finish. Molds used for die casting are more expensive and have a longer service life.
Investment casting is a precision casting process that coats a wax pattern with ceramic to form the casting. Investment casting pieces have the following advantages:
Gravity casting uses gravity alone to pour molten metal into a mold. Gravity die casting has low production costs but a long production time.
Continuous casting produces continuous lengths of polygonal metal shapes. Compared with traditional casting, continuous casting can reduce both costs and energy consumption.
When comparing powder metallurgy to casting, we typically consider the following factors:
Powder metallurgy equipment is usually more expensive, but the production efficiency is high. Sintered parts require less secondary operations, while cast pieces require more secondary processing. Besides, powder metallurgy mostly adopts fully automated processes, which greatly reduces labor costs.
Compared with cast iron, powder metal components are formed by pressing powder, with a high material utilization rate. Most castings require secondary processing to trim or machine away excess material.
Powder metallurgy components can achieve very high dimensional accuracy, especially after the sizing process. Generally, sintered parts can achieve an accuracy of about ± 0.04 mm. Casting, particularly sand casting, usually has lower dimensional accuracy compared to PM.
PM products often have a more uniform microstructure, leading to consistent mechanical properties.
Achieving optimal properties can be more difficult in casting process due to issues like segregation and porosity.
But cast pieces form a more compact structure during solidification, it typically exhibit higher tensile and yield strength.
PM parts typically have a finer surface finish with a Roughness Average (Ra) of 1.6 µm. This reduces the need for secondary operations.
Most Castings are made from nonferrous materials such as:
Because those metals have low melting points.
Powder Metallurgy has a wider range of material selection.
PM can be faster for producing components in high volumes due to its streamlined compaction and sintering process. The elimination of extensive machining and finishing steps also contributes to faster overall production times.
PM process often consumes less energy compared to melting metals. And less material waste leads to more environmentally friendly production.
Melting metal during casting consumes a lot of energy and produces waste gases. In addition, the castings are mostly cooled with water, which can become contaminated with oil, grease, and metal residues.
In our daily life, there are many casting products and powder metallurgy products.
For example, the sturdy frying pans we use to cook delicious meals are crafted through casting. Meanwhile, the smooth and reliable bearings in the fans that keep us cool during hot summer days are engineered using powder metallurgy.
More important powder metallurgy applications are as follows:
Other significant uses of casting include:
When you need to quickly mass produce complex small and medium-sized components, powder metallurgy is obviously better. For larger and stronger parts, casting may be more suitable.
Moreover, you also need to consider the material of the parts. For example, for metals with higher melting points, such as stainless steel, powder metallurgy is obviously more suitable.
In addition, you should consider the cost factor, including materials, equipment, production efficiency, etc.
In the casting process, “pour” refers to the act of transferring molten metal into a mold. Once the molten metal cools and solidifies, the Casting components are formed.
The casting process time can vary significantly based on such factors:
Casting can take several weeks. For large and complex parts, it can take up to a month.
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As widely recognized, powder metallurgy (PM) is an excellent way to quickly produce complex small parts. But for larger or stronger parts, which process is
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