Normally , cast method fall into two general categories customarily depends on modeling methods : sand casting and special casting .
Sand casting of cast method includes green sand mold , dry sand mold and chemical sclerosis sand mold .
Steel casting , iron casting and a majority of non ferrous alloy casting all can be acquired through sand molding . For a long time , sand casting has always been the basic technology in foundry production because of the cheap molding material , mold manufacture simple , applying to single piece production , series production and mass production .
At present , over 90% of the casting is are produced by sand casting .It is the most important cast method .
Special casting of cast method also can be divided into two types depends on molding material : the special casting that to natural mineral sand as the main material ( such as investment casting , clay mold casting , shell mold casting , negative regulation , full mold casting , ceramic mold casting ,etc )and the special casting that to metal as the main material ( such as metal mold casting , pressure casting , continuous casting , low pressure casting , centrifugal casting and so on ) .
The characteristics of special casting are high precision , good mechanical properties , high productivity and good labor condition , but high cost . So , it is mainly used to mass produce non ferrous alloy casting , such as copper , aluminium , magnesium and other alloy casting .It is also the important cast method .