Research status of lost foam casting technology abroad

The lost foam casting technology originated from the “cavity free mold and its casting method” invented by American H.F. Shroyer in 1958. It has been developed for more than 60 years, and was initially mainly used in the production of handicraft castings. In the early stage, MIT successfully poured the Pegasus Pegasus statue (weighing 150kg) and nodular iron clock frame (weighing 3.5t). Until 1981, when the invention patent expired, the world began to study the lost foam casting technology and successfully applied it in the industrial field.

As early as the 1980s, general motors company and Ford Motor Company in the United States have successfully applied the lost foam process to the field of automobile industry, and established advanced aluminum alloy lost foam automatic production master. They produced engine cylinder block, cylinder head and other products in large quantities, which led to the rapid development of lost foam technology. In 1991, Teksid company of Italy invested US $15 million to build a full-automatic production plant of ductile iron wheel hub, with an annual production capacity of 10000-15000 tons. The lost foam casting production line with an annual output of hundreds of thousands of cylinder heads was built by BMW in Germany in 1993.

In the 21st century, the lost foam casting technology in Japan, the United States, Germany, Italy and other industrial developed countries has entered a mature stage, and has successively built highly mechanized and intelligent EPC producers, and the production capacity has increased exponentially.

At present, the research focus of lost foam casting technology abroad is mainly focused on the lost foam casting technology of aluminum magnesium alloy, CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) and rapid prototyping technology.

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