High Pressure Die Casting VS Lost Foam Casting

High pressure die casting and lost foam casting are both casting methods which widely used in automobile industry,telecommunication industry,medical industry etc.Both of casting methods can produce parts with complex geometry shape at tight tolerance requirement.But they are typically used for some parts respectively.

Lost Foam Casting

It is quite similar to investment casting.The patterns were made by expanding polystyrene foam with special coating.The patterns need to be buried into negative pressure container and surround by unbonded sand and compacted by vibration.The molten alloy will be poured on to pattern and evaporate the foam pattern.

1. Casting Flexibility:There is no parting line and core for lost foam casting,which make it suitable for housing,tube with complex design.

2. Tight tolerance and Net Shape:It can get high precision by lost foam casting and the wall thickness can be 3mm.The pattern will disappear as molten alloy pour onto it so the casting will get net shape as foam pattern.

3. Low cost for complex design:lost foam casting can lower the casting cost for complex product with tight tolerance requirement and thin wall geometry.

4. Little machining requested:lost foam casting featured high precision and there is no parting line and flash.Therefore,little machining and trimming requested after casting.

5. Volume manufacturing:lost foam casting is not only suitable for volume manufacturing but also for small amount of product via hand assembly foam pattern.

6. Easy operating:The worker can handle lost foam casting via short time training/

7. High efficiency:The casting process is simple and different casting can be combined into one same pattern in order to enhance efficiency.

High pressure die casting has its owned advantages as well.

1. Excellent dimensional accuracy.

2. Little machining requested

3. Short cycle time

4. Lower labor cost at full automatic production die casting process.

By compare to lost foam casting,high pressure die casting is more suitable for production of non-ferrous product with thin wall,less complex geometry on high volume.The tooling cost is quite expensive for high pressure die casting,therefore,the future demand quantity has to be considered before put investment for tooling.In addition,there will be some porosity because air trapped inside castings due to high speed injection.So the die casting parts are not suitable for welding and heat treatment.