Casting (metalworking)

Intermediate cooling rates from melt result in a dendritic microstructure. Primary and secondary dendrites can be seen in this image.

A simple gating system for a horizontal parting mold.

Schematic of the low-pressure permanent mold casting process

A high-performance software for the simulation of casting processes provides opportunities for an interactive or automated evaluation of results (here, for example, of mold filling and solidification, porosity and flow characteristics). Picture: Componenta B.V., The Netherlands)

Process in which a liquid metal is delivered into a mold that contains a negative impression (i.e., a three-dimensional negative image) of the intended shape.

- Casting (metalworking)

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Sand casting

Cope & drag (top and bottom halves of a sand mold), with cores in place on the drag

Two sets of castings (bronze and aluminium) from the above sand mold

Sand molding tools and books used in Auckland and Nelson New Zealand between approximately 1946 and 1960

Left: Corebox, with resulting (wire reinforced) cores directly below. Right:- Pattern (used with the core) and the resulting casting below (the wires are from the remains of the core)

Sand casting, also known as sand molded casting, is a metal casting process characterized by using sand as the mold material.

Die casting

A schematic of a cold-chamber die casting machine.

Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mould cavity.

Lost-wax casting

Process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass or bronze) is cast from an original sculpture.

Liquid bronze at 1200 °C is poured into the dried and empty casting mould

From the model a rubber mould is made. (The mould is shown here with a solid cast in plaster)

From this rubber mould a hollow wax or paraffin cast is made

The hollow paraffin apple is covered with a final, fire-proof mould, in this case clay-based, an open view. The core is also filled with fire-proof material. Note the stainless steel core supports. In the next step (not shown), the mould is heated in an oven upside-down and the wax is "lost"

On the left is an example of a rubber mould, often used in the lost-wax process, and on the right is the finished bronze sculpture.

Replica of a bronze sceptre from the Nahal Mishmar hoard.

Making sculpture using a lost wax process at Bastar district, Chhattisgarh, India

Gold ibex figurine from the Late Cycladic period (17th century BC). About 10cm long with lost-wax cast feet and head and repoussé body, from an excavation on Santorini.

The Artemision Bronze (ca. 5th century BC). Lost-wax cast Bronze sculpture. 209 cm. Depicts either Zeus or Poseidon. Found near Cape Artemision.

Bronze ritual altar with extensive patterns. From the State of Chu in central China, before 552 BC

Wax forms for casting bronze statues for a Tibetan monastery near Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India

The Gloucester Candlestick, early 12th century, V&A Museum no. 7649-1861

Detailed 9th century bronze of a coiled snake, cast by the lost wax method. Igbo-Ukwu, Nigeria

Sculpture from the Ife state using a lost-wax casting technique, Nigeria, late 11th-14th century.

The Berlin Foundry Cup, early 5th century BC

This bronze piece entitled Lazy Lady, by the sculptor Rowan Gillespie was cast using the lost-wax process.

Hugo Rheinhold's Affe mit Schädel is cast out of bronze using the lost-wax process.

A wax model is sprued with vents for casting metal and for the release of air, and covered in heat-resistant material.

A bronze cast, with part of the spruing cut away

A nearly finished bronze casting. Only the core supports have yet to be removed and closed

Illustration of stepwise bronze casting by the lost-wax method

The Blätterbrunnen of 1976 by Emil Cimiotti, as seen 2014 in the city center of Hanover, Germany. A lost-wax method was used for the bronze leaves.

Casting is usually done straight from the kiln either by centrifugal casting or vacuum casting.

Cast iron

Class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%.

Pair of English firedogs, 1576. These, with firebacks, were common early uses of cast iron, as little strength in the metal was needed.

Cast-iron artifact dated from 5th century BC found in Jiangsu, China

Diorama model of a Han dynasty blast furnace blower

The Iron Lion of Cangzhou, the largest surviving cast-iron artwork from China, 953 AD, Later Zhou period

Cast-iron waffle iron, an example of cast-iron cookware

The Iron Bridge over the River Severn at Coalbrookdale, England (finished 1779)

The Eglinton Tournament Bridge (completed c1845), North Ayrshire, Scotland, built from cast iron

Original Tay Bridge from the north (finished 1878)

If desired, other elements are then added to the melt before the final form is produced by casting.

Jewellery

Jewellery or jewelry consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks.

A gold, diamonds and sapphires red guilloché enamel "Boule de Genève", a type of pendant watch used as an accessory for women. An example of an object which is functional, artistic/decorative, marker of social status or a symbol of personal meaning.

Hair ornament, an Art Nouveau masterpiece; by René Lalique; circa 1902; gold, emeralds and diamonds; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)

Oldest golden artifacts in the world from Varna necropolis – grave offerings on exposition in Varna Museum

Headdress decorated with golden leaves; 2600–2400 BC; gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian; length: 38.5 cm; from the Royal Cemetery at Ur; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Openwork hairnet; 300–200 BC; gold; diameter: 23 cm, diameter of the medallion: 11.4 cm; unknown provenance (said to be from Karpenissi (Greece)); National Archaeological Museum (Athens)

The Great Cameo of France; second quarter of the 1st century AD; five-layered sardonyx; 31 x 26.5 cm; Cabinet des médailles (Paris)

Byzantine collier; late 6th–7th century; gold, emeralds, sapphires, amethysts and pearls; diameter: 23 cm; from a Constantinopolitan workshop; Antikensammlung Berlin (Berlin, Germany)

Cameo; 16th century; sardonyx; Cabinet des Médailles (Paris)

Russian earring; 19th century; silver, enamel and red glass beads; overall: 6.4 x 2.6 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland)

Breastplate with a peacocks; René Lalique; circa 1898–1900; gold, enamels, opals and diamonds; Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Lisboa, Portugal)

Necklace with Shiva's family; late 19th century; gold inlaid with rubies, a diamond Rudraksha beads (elaeo carpus seeds) and silver back plate on clasp; overall: 38.1 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, US)

Moche ear jewellery; 3rd–7th century; gold, turquoise, sodalite and shell; diameter: 8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Bai-De-Schluch-A-Ichin or Be-Ich-Schluck-Ich-In-Et-Tzuzzigi (Slender Silversmith) "Metal Beater," Navajo silversmith, photo by George Ben Wittick, 1883

Gold and gemstone contemporary jewellery design

Male hand with modern silver rings, one with a tribal motive.

Indian actress Shraddha Kapoor showcasing modern Indian-style jewellery

The Oulun Koru jewellery shop at the Kirkkokatu street in Oulu, Finland

Pair of Maya earflare frontals; 3rd–6th century; jade (jadeite); height: 5.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Pendant; circa 1069 BC; gold and turquoise; overall: 5.1 x 2.3 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland)

String of beads; 3650–3100 BC; lapis lazuli (the blue beads) and travertine (the white beads) (Egyptian alabaster); length: 4.5 cm; by Naqada II or Naqada III cultures; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

String of beads; 3300–3100 BC; carnelian, garnet, quartz and glazed steatite; length: 20.5 cm; by Naqada III culture Metropolitan Museum of Art

Armlet with sun symbol; 16th-13th century BC (late Bronze Age); bronze; German National Museum (Nürnberg)

Necklace; probably 2600–1300 BC; carnelian, bone and stone; from Saruq Al Hadid (the United Arab Emirates)

Pectoral (chest jewellery) of Tutankhamun; 1336–1327 BC (Reign of Tutankhamun); gold, silver and meteoric glass; height: 14.9 cm (5.9 in); Egyptian Museum (Cairo)

Signet ring; 664–525 BC; gold; diameter: 3 × 3.4 cm; British Museum (London)

Pectoral and necklace of Princess Sithathoriunet; 1887–1813 BC; gold, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, garnet & feldspar; height of the pectoral: 4.5 cm (1.8 in); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Sumerian necklace beads; 2600–2500 BC; gold and lapis lazuli; length: 54 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Necklace; 2600–2500 BC; gold and lapis lazuli; length: 22.5 cm; Royal Cemetery at Ur (Iraq); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pair of earrings with cuneiform inscriptions, 2093–2046 BC; gold; Sulaymaniyah Museum (Sulaymaniyah, Iraq)

Sumerian necklaces and headgear discovered in the royal (and individual) graves of the Royal Cemetery at Ur, showing the way they may have been worn, in British Museum (London)

The Bee Pendant, an iconic Minoan jewel; 1700–1600 BC; gold; width: 4.6 cm; from Chrysolakkos (gold pit) complex at Malia; Archaeological Museum of Heraklion (Heraklion, Greece)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=David Michael|title=Ancient Greece Pocket Museum|date=2017|publisher=Thames and Hudson|isbn=978-0500519585|page=79|language=en}}</ref><ref>Nelson, E. C., Mavrofridis, G., & Anagnostopoulos, I. T. (2020). "Natural History of a Bronze Age Jewel Found in Crete: The Malia Pendant". The Antiquaries Journal, 1–12. {{doi|10.1017/S0003581520000475}}</ref>

Mycenaean necklace; 1400–1050 BC; gilded terracotta; diameter of the rosettes: 2.7 cm, with variations of circa 0.1 cm, length of the pendant 3.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

The Ganymede Jewellery; circa 300 BC; gold; various dimensions; provenance unknown (said to have been found near Thessaloniki (Greece)); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Necklace; circa 200 BC; gold, moonstone, garnet, emerald, cornelian, baroque pearl and banded agate; overall: 39.4 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland)

The Vulci set of jewelry; early 5th century; gold, glass, rock crystal, agate and carnelian; various dimensions; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Earring in the form of a dolphin; 5th century BC; gold; 2.1 × 1.4 × 4.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bulla with Daedalus and Icarus; 5th century BC; gold; 1.6 × 1 × 1 cm; Walters Art Museum (Baltimore)

Earring; gold and silver; 1.5 × 0.4 × 1.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cameo portrait of the Emperor Augustus; 41–54 AD; sardonyx; 3.7 × 2.9 × 0.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Bracelet; 1st–2nd century AD; gold-mounted crystal and sardonyx; length: 19.69 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles)

Necklace with a medallion depicting a goddess; 30–300; green glass (the green beads) and gold; length: 43.82 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Openwork hairnet with the head of Medusa; 200–300; gold; Archaeological Museum of Agrigento (Agrigento, Italy)

The Eagle-shaped fibulae of Alovera; 5th century; gold, bronze and glass (imitation of garnet); height: 11.8 cm, width: 5.9 cm; from Guadalajara (Spain); National Archaeological Museum (Madrid, Spain)

Shoulder-clasps from Sutton Hoo; early 7th century; gold, glass & garnet; length: 12.7 cm; British Museum (London)

Pair of Byzantine earrings; 7th century; gold, pearls, glass and emeralds; 10.2 x 4.5 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland)

Front of a temple pendant with two birds flanking a tree of life; 11th–12th century; cloisonné enamel & gold; overall: 5.4 x 4.8 x 1.5 cm; made in Kyiv (Ukraine); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

The Dragonfly brooch; by René Lalique; circa 1897–1898; gold, vitreous enamel, chrysoprase, chalcedony, moonstone and diamond; height: 23 cm, width: 26.5 cm; Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Lisboa, Portugal)

Necklace; by René Lalique; 1897–1899; gold, enamel, opals and amethysts; overall diameter: 24.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

The Snakes brooch; by René Lalique; gold and enamel; Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

Fluted ring with a dragon head (huan); circa 475 BC; jade (nephrite); overall: 9.1 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland)

Ornament with flowers and grapes design; 1115–1234; jade; Shanghai Museum (China)

Xin 心 shaped jewelry; 1368–1644; gold, ruby, pearl and other gemstones; about the size of an adult human's palm; Dingling (Beijing, China)

Hat ornament; 18th–19th century; gold, gilded metal, kingfisher feathers, glass and semiprecious stones; various dimensions; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Pendant probably with Siddha; 8th–9th century; copper alloy; 8.89 x 7.93 x .31 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles)

Earring with Vishnu riding Garuda; circa 1600; gold set with jewels and semi-precious stones; overall: 2.6 cm; from Nepal; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland)

Earring with four-armed Vishnu riding Garuda with Nagas (serpent divinities); circa 1600; repousse gold with pearls; overall: 3.6 cm; from Nepal; Cleveland Museum of Art

Comb with Vishnu adored by serpents; 1750–1800; ivory with traces of paint; 6.99 x 7.94; from Nepal; Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Olmec seated shaman in ritual pose-shaped pendant; 9th–5th century BC; serpentine and cinnabar; height: 18.5 cm; Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, Texas)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fortenberry|first1=Diane|title=The Art Museum |date=2017|publisher=Phaidon|isbn=978-0714875026|page=229|language=en}}</ref>

Pendant with 2 bat-head warriors who carry spears; 11th–16th century; gold; overall: 7.62 cm (3 in.); from the Chiriqui Province (Panama); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Double-headed serpent; 1450–1521; Spanish cedar wood (Cedrela odorata), turquoise, shell, traces of gilding & 2 resins are used as adhesive (pine resin and Bursera resin); height: 20.3 cm, width: 43.3 cm, depth: 5.9 cm; British Museum (London)

Māori hei-tiki; 1500–1800; jade (nephrite), abalone shell and pigments; from the New Zealand; Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (Paris)

Hei-tiki; 18th century; nephrite and haliotis shell; 10.9 cm; from the New Zealand; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles)

Hawaiian pendant; 18th–19th century; whalebone; height: 6 cm, width, 3.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Breast Ornament (civa vonovono); circa 1850; whale ivory, pearl shell and fiber; height: 12.7 cm, diameter: 17.78 cm; from Fiji; Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Silversmiths, goldsmiths, and lapidaries use methods including forging, casting, soldering or welding, cutting, carving and "cold-joining" (using adhesives, staples and rivets to assemble parts).

Aluminium

Chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13.

High-resolution STEM-HAADF micrograph of Al atoms viewed along the [001] zone axis.

Aluminium hydrolysis as a function of pH. Coordinated water molecules are omitted. (Data from Baes and Mesmer)

Structure of trimethylaluminium, a compound that features five-coordinate carbon.

Bauxite, a major aluminium ore. The red-brown color is due to the presence of iron oxide minerals.

The statue of Anteros in Piccadilly Circus, London, was made in 1893 and is one of the first statues cast in aluminium.

World production of aluminium since 1900

1897 American advertisement featuring the aluminum spelling

Common bins for recyclable waste along with a bin for unrecyclable waste. The bin with a yellow top is labeled "aluminum". Rhodes, Greece.

Aluminium-bodied Austin A40 Sports (c. 1951)

Laser deposition of alumina on a substrate

Schematic of aluminium absorption by human skin.

There are five major aluminium forms absorbed by human body: the free solvated trivalent cation (Al3+(aq)); low-molecular-weight, neutral, soluble complexes (LMW-Al0(aq)); high-molecular-weight, neutral, soluble complexes (HMW-Al0(aq)); low-molecular-weight, charged, soluble complexes (LMW-Al(L)n+/−(aq)); nano and micro-particulates (Al(L)n(s)). They are transported across cell membranes or cell epi-/endothelia through five major routes: (1) paracellular; (2) transcellular; (3) active transport; (4) channels; (5) adsorptive or receptor-mediated endocytosis.

"Bauxite tailings" storage facility in Stade, Germany. The aluminium industry generates about 70 million tons of this waste annually.

Aluminium is ductile, with a percent elongation of 50-70%, and malleable allowing it to be easily drawn and extruded.{{sfn|Davis|1999|p=4}} It is also easily machined and cast.{{sfn|Davis|1999|p=4}}

Steel

Alloy made up of iron with typically a few tenths of a percent of carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron.

Incandescent steel workpiece in this depiction of the blacksmith's art

Iron-carbon phase diagram, showing the conditions necessary to form different phases. Martensite is not shown, as it is not a stable phase.

Fe-C phase diagram for carbon steels; showing the A0, A1, A2 and A3 critical temperatures for heat treatments.

Iron ore pellets for the production of steel

Bloomery smelting during the Middle Ages

A Bessemer converter in Sheffield, England

A Siemens-Martin open hearth furnace in the Brandenburg Museum of Industry.

White-hot steel pouring out of an electric arc furnace.

Steel production (in million tons) by country in 2007

Bethlehem Steel (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania facility pictured) was one of the world's largest manufacturers of steel before its closure in 2003

Forging a structural member out of steel

A steel pylon suspending overhead power lines

In the past, steel facilities would cast the raw steel product into ingots which would be stored until use in further refinement processes that resulted in the finished product.

Investment casting

Industrial process based on lost-wax casting, one of the oldest known metal-forming techniques.

A wax pattern used to create a jet engine turbine blade

Unveiling the titanium integral space bus satellite by Planetary Resources in February 2014. The sacrificial mould for the investment casting was 3D-printed with integral cable routing and toroidal propellant tank. From left: Peter Diamandis, Chris Lewicki, and Steve Jurvetson.

The investment shell for casting a turbocharger rotor

A view of the interior investment shows the smooth surface finish and high level of detail

9) Pouring: The investment mould is then placed open-side up into a tub filled with sand. The metal may be gravity poured or forced by applying positive air pressure or other forces. Vacuum casting, tilt casting, pressure assisted pouring and centrifugal casting are methods that use additional forces and are especially useful when moulds contain thin sections that would be otherwise be difficult to fill.

Permanent mold casting

Permanent mold casting is a metal casting process that employs reusable molds ("permanent molds"), usually made from metal.

Pattern (casting)

Replica of the object to be cast, used to prepare the cavity into which molten material will be poured during the casting process.

Wooden pattern for a cast-iron gear with curved spokes

The top and bottom halves of a sand casting mould showing the cavity prepared by patterns. Cores to accommodate holes can be seen in the bottom half of the mould, which is called the drag. The top half of the mould is called the cope.

This is accounted for using a contraction rule, which is an oversized rule.