Lost foam casting offers production of high complexity components with very thin walls and intricate, detailed features. A key advantage to reduce additional machining for finishing the production process flow. Requires the lost foam casting process quality monitoring at every stage for successful solutions. Will be less-than-perfect quality control leads to high scrap rate, cost, efficiency lower than optimal increase, and decreased competitiveness.

Lost foam casting products have been successfully used by the three major domestic automakers. General Motors (GM) owned powertrain manufacturing facility in Massena, NY uses SMD to produce about one million pieces per annum engine. To combat the high-thanoptimal scrap rates experienced at the facility, GM asked for assistance from NYSERDA and resolve the issue USDOE in manufacturing. NYSERDA’s mission is to use innovation and technology to solve the most difficult energy of New York State and environmental problems in ways that improve the State’s economy. By helping GM to increase operational efficiency through reduced scrap rates (reclaiming requires the re-melting scrap and re-shaping of the defective piece), the facility can energy consumption and reduce resources. Reduces the use of the lightweight metal vehicle weight, increases fuel efficiency and reduces cost of ownership. Its manufacturing process is popular all-aluminum engines called Evaporative Pattern Casting, more popularly referred to as Lost Foam Casting.

A material commonly used in lost foam casting aluminum and iron. As the name implies process, the castings are made from polystyrene foam patterns to evaporate when the molten metal is introduced into the casing sand.