casting

casting

or

founding,

shaping of metal by melting and pouring into a mold. Most castings, especially large ones, are made in sand molds. Sand, mixed with a binder to hold it together, is pressed around a wooden pattern that leaves a cavity in the sand. Molten metal is poured into the cavity and allowed to solidify. Permanent metal molds are used to make many small, simple parts; shell molding gives greater accuracy for a large volume of semiprecision parts. A two-step process, investment casting, produces small, complex shapes. Wax or plastic replicas of the parts are molded in accurate metal molds. These replicas are covered with sand in a box to make the final mold. When the whole mold is heated, the replica melts, leaving behind a cavity into which metal is poured. Large numbers of small, precise parts of metals that have a low melting point, such as zinc, are made by die-casting; in an automatic process, molten metal is forced under pressure into metal molds. Cast iron and cast steel are more brittle than forged iron and forged steel (see forging).

Casting

 

(in Russian, lit’e), the industrial process of production of castings. It consists in the filling of molds with molten materials (casting alloys, plastics, or certain rock formations), with subsequent processing of the resulting articles. The Russian term life is incorrectly applied to the product of the foundry industry. [The correct term is otlivka.]

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Casting

 

the most widespread method of duplicating an original carved or modeled sculpture in metal and of making metal vessels, flatware, lamps, and other articles. A work of art that is produced by this method is known as a casting.

Casting for artistic purposes arose during the Bronze Age, when man mastered the techniques of extracting and working metal. This type of casting gradually became a separate branch of casting in general. Artistic considerations dictated the specific methods used to form the model, the methods of casting (often with the intention to produce a single object), and the selection of the metal or alloy to be used for a particular type of product. Artistic aims also dictated the decorative finishing (often by the artist) of the product’s surface by embossing, engraving, patina-tion, gilding, and other techniques, as a result of which even mass-produced items acquired the characteristics of a unique work.

The basic technique of casting for artistic purposes was developed through bronze casting. At present, as it was in antiquity, bronze is the most widely used alloy for casting works of art. Beginning in the fourth century, small objects were cast in tin (for example, amulets from Coptic graves from the fourth to seventh centuries). During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, tin was used to cast plaques, medallions, and particularly vessels (such as cups and goblets); these articles imitated their more expensive silver counterparts. Owing to the softness of the metal, these objects had rounded edges and a flowing pictorial relief (usually executed by engraving).

In the 17th and 18th centuries, park sculpture was cast in lead (for example, at Versailles and Petrodvorets), the fluid quality of which created contours of figures and folds of drapery that seems to melt into air. Casting in iron for artistic purposes developed in the 15th century in Germany and later in other European countries (in Russia in the late 17th century at the Kasli Cast Iron Plant). Park sculpture, gravestones, gates, fences, and lawn furniture were cast in iron. Cast iron is more massive yet less expensive than bronze. It has its own unique expressive qualities as a result of its weightiness and dull color (light gray to deep black) and is used at present almost as widely as bronze.

REFERENCE

Zotov, B. N. Formovka khudozhestvennogo lit’ia. Moscow, 1947.

I. M. GLOZMAN

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Casting

 

a blank for an article (less frequently, a finished product) produced by pouring liquid metal into a casting mold, in which it solidifies. Castings are divided into semifinished materials, or pigs, which are intended for subsequent remelting, and ingots, which are processed by rolling; shaped castings, which are usually machined; and finished articles, which are only cleaned or painted. Castings may be made from any metals and alloys, as well as rock, slag, glass, and plastics.

casting

[′kast·iŋ]

(engineering)

cast

founding, casting

Producing metal products in a foundry by pouring melted metals into molds.

casting

1. an object or figure that has been cast, esp in metal from a mould

2. the process of transferring molten steel to a mould

3. the choosing of actors for a production

4. Hunting the act of directing a pack of hounds over ground where their quarry may recently have passed so that they can quest for, discover, or recapture its scent

5. Zoology another word for cast, pellet

casting

(1) A variety of functions that transmit or convert data. See anycast, autocasting, blogcasting, Bluecasting, broadcast, multicast, narrowcast, podcast and Webcast.

(2) Transferring the content that appears on a computer or mobile screen to a TV. See AirPlay, Miracast and Chromecast.

(3) In programming, the conversion of one data type into another; for example, from an integer to a string or vice versa. The casting statement in the source code of a program causes the compiler to generate the machine code that performs the actual conversion. See data type, integer and string.