5 Things You Might Not Know About Metal Casting

Metal Castings are all around us. They're something that we often take for granted. Castings are a part of our day to day life, but many people don't know much about them, or how they're created. We've enlisted the help of the quality assurance manager at Hastings Brass Foundry, Erin Davison Addy. She tells us 5 things you might not know about metal casting...

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You can’t live without them. Approximately 90% of all manufactured goods contain a casting. You may not realize it, but you are surrounded by them. You depend on them for transportation, for shelter, and for basic necessities such as cooking and bathing.

Metal casters are the original recyclers. For centuries, foundries have been re-melting and re-using scrap material in new castings. You could almost say that foundries invented recycling.

The oldest existing casting is a bronze frog which dates back to 3200 BC. That may seem old, but castings were being made as long as 6000 years ago. When historians refer to the Bronze Age or the Iron Age, those periods in history are named for the predominant materials used in metal castings at the time.

You may think that foundries are hard to find, or only located in far off places, but there are approximately 200 facilities that cast metal located in Canada, and over 2,000 in the United States. There is a metal casting facility near you, I can almost guarantee it.

A metal casting could be the perfect solution to your manufacturing needs. Castings can be used to increase strength, reduce weight, or to manufacture geometrically complex parts or near-net shapes. Castings frequently require little to no additional machining to create a finished part.

Erin Davison Addy
Quality Assurance Manager
Hastings Brass Foundry Ltd

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