The history of centrifugal casting can be traced back to the 19th century. The first patent of centrifugal casting in the world was obtained by ERchart, an Englishman, with the name of “producing better and purer metal products with molten iron”. Then, in 1849, andraw shark manufactured the first centrifugal casting machine and produced centrifugal casting pipes with a length of 3600 mm and a diameter of 75 mm. In 1862, German metallurgist henery bessewer put forward the equipment and process plan of vertical centrifugal casting. Later, both centrifugal casting equipment and process were improved.
In 1910, ottobride, a German, invented the hydraulic driving pouring trough, which was suitable for the production of long pipes with metal mould. In 1914, delavaud and Arens of Brazil invented the water-cooled metal mold centrifugal casting machine, which improved the cooling speed and production efficiency of castings. In 1917, American Moore invented the sand mold centrifugal casting method, that is, before pouring, the inner surface of the mold is lined with a layer of clay sand. The quality of the outer surface of the casting produced by this method is better. In 1950, Sweden began to use heat-resistant coating instead of sand mold to produce water pipes. In 1951, shortly after the invention of ductile iron, Europeans began to use it to make cast pipes. In 1952, a cast pipe company in the United States used coated resin sand instead of sand mold to produce cast pipes. This method is called mono cast method and has been widely used in the United States, Japan and Taiwan.
In 1930s, centrifugal casting method was used to produce iron pipes in China. In 1984, Houma Fenglei machinery works and Xingtai Iron and steel works respectively introduced water-cooled and hot mold centrifugal casting machines and used them in the production of ductile iron pipes, thus starting the history of centrifugal production of ductile iron pipes in China. In 1998, Xinxing Cast Pipe Co., Ltd. independently developed the production technology of super large hot mold centrifugal ductile iron pipe. The 8 m long and 2 m diameter ductile iron pipe produced by this technology was put into use in Taiyuan Yellow River Diversion Project.
Centrifugal casting has been widely used all over the world. Up to now, centrifugal casting is still a main production method for centrifugal pipe and cylinder castings, such as iron pipe, copper sleeve and cylinder liner. With the development of industry, the output of castings produced by centrifugal casting method will be further expanded, and people put forward higher requirements for the quality and precision of castings.
