Moulage à la cire perdue

Investment Casting Equipments

Investment castings, also common named as lost wax casting or precision casting, it is an ancient and widely used industrial production process for moulage de métaux sur mesure parts in various fields.
The reason to name as investment casting is, the custom parts are produced in a wax part which is coated with a refractory material. After the coating material be dried and hardened, the wax will be melted and lost to leave a cavity for pouring the molten material and forming the final custom parts shape.
Here is the general process of investment casting:
Wax injection → wax part welding → shell making → shell drying → dewaxing → shell baking → melting → pouring → sand blasting
Investment casting mainly includes two casting processes, water glass investment casting and silica sol investment casting. The two methods main difference is surface roughness and production cost. Silica Sol casting can get better surface roughness of parts but cost of casting is higher than water glass casting. The choice to use depends on the part accuracy requirement.
To get the desired part with investment casting process, it is important to choose suitable investment casting material. The wide variety of materials can be carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, copper alloy, and so on. Right material is favorable for customer to get expected functionality, avoid casting defects and save on cost.
Investment casting not only can produce different weight casting parts from a few grams to several hundred kilograms, but also can make any complicated part shapes. These parts can be used in various fields like agricultural machinery, engineering construction equipment, automotive, marine, medical, firefighting, water treatment systems, etc.

Injection de cire

Soudage de pièces en cire

Fabrication de coquilles

Séchage de la coquille

Décirage

Cuisson en coquille

Fusion

Verser

Sablage

Moulage au sable

Coulée en sable is one of the most universal solutions in manufacturing due to its highly versatile nature. It is applicable for production of different sizes, shapes, complexities and quantities of metal parts. In mass production, sand casting parts nearly covers all the industries like construction, mining, agriculture, automotive, aerospace, marine, and sports and recreational equipment sectors.
The general process of sand casting technology includes the following steps:
1.Make pattern 2.Sand preparation 3. Molding 4. Melting 5.Pouring 6. Grinding 7. Sand blasting
According to different types of sand used, currently sand casting technology mainly includes three methods, clay sand casting, resin sand casting and shell mold sand casting.
Clay sand casting also known as green sand casting, it doesn’t mean the sand color is green, it is derived from greenwood: that is, wood that still contains a large amount of water. The main components of green sand are sand, clay, sludge, anthracite, and water. Comparing with other sand casting methods, clay sand casting is a reliable, simple, low cost but high production rate technique. By using this method, it is able to manufacture nearly any product, such as counterweights, manhole covers, pump casings, pulleys, etc.
The molding material for resin sand casting is a blend of quartz sand and resin sand. When resin sand is mixed and heated, it hardens into a solid, smooth mold. A solid mold produces fewer faulty castings, but it comes at a greater cost and a slower production rate. Resin sand molds take longer to make because each one must be mixed and burned individually. Resin sand casting have better surface smoothness, higher dimensional tolerance, and less surface and inside casting defects than clay sand casting, it is more suitable for producing castings with weight range from dozens of kilograms to several tons, like some heavy duty machinery parts or mining equipment parts.
Shell mold casting is also called pre-coated sand casting, it is an expendable mold casting process that uses resin covered sand to form the mold. Typical parts with this method are small-to-medium in size and require high accuracy, such as gear housings, cylinder heads, connecting rods, and lever arms, etc.
For sand casting technology, it allows the use of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, but most commonly using grey iron, ductile iron, ADI, carbon steel, alloy steel, sometimes stainless steel, aluminum alloys, copper alloys are also workable.

Sand Casting Equipments

Sand Treatment Line

Molding Line

Core Setting

Four de fusion

Pouring Line

Grinding

Sablage

Pattern Store

Shell Mold Casting

Shell mold casting is also known as shell molding or coated sand casting, is a sand casting process that utilizes a resin-covered sand to form the mold. This technique is known for producing high-quality castings with excellent surface finish, complex shapes and dimensional accuracy.

The metal pattern is made base on the designed allowances for shrinkage and machining, then heat the pattern to around 175-370°C (350-700°F) and coated with a mixture of fine sand and a thermosetting resin. This resin-sand mixture forms a shell around the heated pattern. Rotate or invert the coated pattern to ensure even coating and to remove excess sand. The heated pattern cures the resin, hardening the sand into a rigid shell. Carefully remove each half the pattern from the shell, then assemble the shell mold and place inside the mold the additional cores if needed. Pouring and further process can be followed after that.
Shell mold casting process offers several advantages:
High Precision: Provides excellent dimensional accuracy and a smooth surface finish.
Complex Geometries: Capable of producing intricate and detailed parts.
Material Versatility: Suitable for a wide range of metals, including steel, iron and alloys.
Efficient Production: Once the mold is made, the process is relatively quick and can be automated for large-scale production.
Nowerdays, shell mold casting is widely used in industries requiring high-precision parts, such as automotive and engineering. Typical applications include engine components, gear housings, valves, and other intricate parts where dimensional accuracy and surface finish are critical.

Shell Mold Casting Equipments

Molding Workshop

Melting Workshop

Pouring Work Shop

Forgeage

As another shaping method of custom metal parts, forging is the process in which thermal and mechanical energy is applied to steel bars or plates to cause the alloy to change shape while in a solid state. Forging can accept a wide variety of materials, but the most common are: carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, duplex and aluminum alloys, titanium, nickel, copper and brass.
Comparing with casting, forging can provide several benefits, like more stronger products, higher fatigue strength, low operating cost, variety of shapes accomplished, etc.
Customers usually choose forging process for their products that require significant strength, such as crankshafts and connecting rods in automotive, valves and flanges in oil gas field, industrial gearboxes in heavy machinery and powder generation components.
At present, the most common used three forging methods are die forging, roll forging and free forging.
Die forging usually refers to closed die forging, it is to shape the required part by squeezing (with a mechanical or hydraulic press) or hammering (with a gravity or power-assisted hammer) a hot workpiece between two die halves attached to a press or hammer. A medium frequency induction heating furnace is always used to heat the metal for pressing into dies. After closed die forging, very less or no machining will be operated due to its high accuracy throughout the process. So die forging is also a net shape or near net shape process.
Another open die forging process is what we called free forging nowadays, In free forging, the billet is placed between multiple dies that do not enclose the metal entirely. The dimensions will be changed by hammering and stamping the metal through a series of movement until the final dimensions are achieved. Unlike closed die forging, dies of open die forging is very simple. And secondly machining operation is always carried out. So this method is not capable of forming close tolerance and higher precision parts, but it generally can save the pattern cost a lot.
Roll forging also known as roll forming, is to utilize opposing rolls to shape a metal part. Roll forging is usually performed at hot status. The opposing rolls may be two cylindrical or semi-cylindrical horizontal rolls that are used to deform a round or flat bar stock. Through this action, the thickness is reduced, and the length is increased. Parts produced through roll forging have superior mechanical properties than those produced from many other processes. Roll forging is often used in the automotive industry to manufacture parts like shafts of various geometries, rings, knives, hand tools and leaf springs.

Forging Equipments

Forging Production Line

Die Forging Machine For Big Forging Parts

Mold Forging Machine For Big Forging Parts

Mold Forging Machine For Small Forging Parts

Forging Machine

Roll Forging Machine

Usinage

Machining is also called processing, it is an essential manufacture process that uses suitable processing equipment to remove materials from the pièces de fonderie/forging parts and metal profiles, so that to get the desired part in a certain dimension, shape or finish.
With the development and advancement of technology, more and more machining processes and operations are used in vast manufacturing. The most prominent 11 machining types include turning, milling, boring, broaching, drilling, reaming, grinding, sawing, planing, water jet cutting and burning machining technologies.

The accuracy of the processing equipment used determines the quality level of the final finished products. Most machining processes have high control over the material removal for utmost accuracy. Nowadays, we mainly use CNC (Computerized Numberical Control) machining to realize most of the machining works, it can reach a high and steady accuracy with less labor cost, and it can eliminate the restrictions of manual control and results in a high-quality output. Due to CNC machining, even the most difficult of three-dimensional cutting tasks can be accomplished in a single set of prompts. Machining nearly involves in every manufacturing industry like farming machinery, engineering and construction, mining, textiles machinery, medical equipment, packaging, food, sports equipment, railways, shipbuilding, petrochemicals, energy, water conservancy, automotive and electronics etc. Almost all materials, including metals, wood, glass, plastics, ceramics, and more support machining operations.

Machining on metal profiles can easily and quickly make the needed part. It doesn’t need time to make the casting/forging blanks, just cut the profiles to appropriate length according to the workpiece and start processing immediately. But the weight of the profiles blank is usually much more than the finished product.

For casting parts, further machining can also effectively help to check the castings internal quality and find the possible casting defects like blowholes and shrinkage.

CNC machining of forging parts offers a powerful combination of flexibility and material efficiency of forging with the precision and surface quality of CNC machining. This approach is ideal for manufacturing complex, high-precision parts in various industries, ensuring optimal performance and cost-effectiveness. By understanding the nuances of both processes, manufacturers can optimize their production methods to meet specific part.

Machining is not a single skill-set job. It requires a combination of skills for exceptional quality results or execution of complex projects.

During the machining production, we generally do as per the following process to machine a variety of metal parts with different shapes and functions:

Check the machining drawing carefully, find out the key points for the machining of the part
Design the machining process flow card for each process
Buy and check the material / raw parts, to make sure there is enough space for machining
Machining as per the process design step by step
Check the machined dimension and required technical points after each process
Ébavurer les bords, polir la surface et appliquer une protection antirouille si nécessaire.
Final inspection, for the samples to measure all the drawing dimensions to ensure accuracy; for batch production to measure some main dimensions by random as per the inspection requirements.

Accuracy in tolerance and dimension, repeatability in mass production, high efficiency in production rate, flexibility in type of part, complexity in shape of part, effectiveness in cost, versatility in material, consistency in quality control and reduction in lead time, all of these lead to the high-speed development for machining work in China in the past 20 years, and the related technology and equipment upgrade rapidly too. We believe there will be a even better future for Machining in China Industry.

Machining Equipments

Machining Workshop

Machining Equipment

Machining Center

CNC Lathe Machine

Machining Lathe

Lathe CNC

Machining Machine

Gear Grinding Machine

Swiss Type CNC Lathe

CNC Swiss Lathe

Vertical Machining Center

Horizontal Machining Center

Traitement en profondeur

Usinage is the most common deep processing for a casting or forging part to achieve the desired dimensions and surface finish. Besides, we offer the following deep processing for our rough parts as per customer requirements.
1. Surface Treatment
Surface treatments improve wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and aesthetic appearance. Common surface treatments include:
Blasting: Cleans the surface and prepares it for further treatment.
Anti-rust protection: anti-rust oil, water-based rust preventer or anti-rust packing material……
Coating: Applies protective or decorative layers, such as wet painting, powder coating, e-coating, dacromet coating, zinc plating ( galvanization), chrome plating……
Polishing: Enhances surface smoothness and appearance, this is often used for stainless steel products.
2. Heat Treatment
Heat treatment processes are used to improve the mechanical properties of the parts, such as hardness, toughness, and strength. Generally we can offer the following heat treatment processes:
ADI: austenitizing the ductile iron material, then quenching and tempering, transform the austenite into ausferrite to obtain the high strength, high wear-resistance and considerable elongation of the material.
Annealing: Softens the material, making it easier to machine and improving ductility.
Quenching: Rapidly cools the part to increase hardness.
Tempering: Reduces brittleness in quenched parts by reheating them to a lower temperature.
Normalizing: Refines grain structure and improves machinability and strength.
3. Assembling
Welding, joining and riveting processes are used to assemble parts or repair defects. The most frequently use way in our factory is:
Arc Welding: Uses an electric arc to join metals.
Brazing: Joins metals using a filler metal with a lower melting point than the base metals.
Soldering: Similar to brazing but performed at lower temperatures.
Assembling: Use rivets, screws, pins and some special parts to assembling several parts to make a small unit.
We can also design or suggest the most suitable deep processing for each part as per our rich experience, this is part of our service too.

Surface Treatment Equipments

E-coating Line

Powder Painting Line

Galvanizing Production Line

Wet Painting Workshop

Dacromet Coating Line

Chrome Plating Production Line

Heat Treatment Equipments

ADI Treatment Line

Induction Hardening Furnace

Quenching and Tempering Workshop

Quenching Furnace

Inspection

Inspection for casting and pièces forgées is crucial to ensure that they meet the required quality standards and specifications. We can offer the following inspection for both casting and forging parts in our factory or from the third party lab.
1.Apperance:
Visual Inspection: Check surface defects such as cracks, porosity, inclusions, and misruns.
Roughness test: Check the surface roughness
2.Material:
Chemical Composition Analysis: Ensures the material composition meets the required specifications. Methods include spectrometry and wet chemical analysis.
Metallographic Examination: Examines the microstructure of the material to check for grain size, phase distribution, and other microstructural characteristics.
Grain Flow Inspection
Microstructural Examination: Examines the grain flow to ensure it follows the desired pattern, which is crucial for the mechanical properties of the forged part.
3.Mechanical performance:
Hardness Testing: Measures the hardness of the casting or forging part to ensure it meets the required specifications.
Tensile Testing: Measures the tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation of the material.
Impact Testing: Assesses the material’s toughness by measuring its ability to absorb energy during fracture.
4.Inner soundness:
Non-Destructive Testing (NDT)
Radiographic Testing (RT): Uses X-rays or gamma rays to detect internal defects like porosity, inclusions, and cracks.
Ultrasonic Testing (UT): Uses high-frequency sound waves to detect internal flaws and measure wall thickness.
Magnetic Particle Testing (MPT): Detects surface and near-surface defects in ferromagnetic materials.
Dye Penetrant Testing (DPT): Detects surface-breaking defects by applying a liquid penetrant and then a developer to draw out the penetrant from defects.
Eddy Current Testing (ECT): Detects surface and near-surface defects using electromagnetic induction.
5.Dimensional accuracy:
Standard rulers: Different kinds of calipers are used to measure the normal dimensions such as length, width, height, depth, radius, diameter, thickness……
Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM): Measures the dimensions of the part with high precision.
Projector: Measure the angle, position and shape dimensions
Gauge: Uses fixed gauges to check critical dimensions, such as thread, keyway……
Special gauge: Make special gauge to check certain dimensions.
6.Other testing:
Coating layer thickness test: To see if the surface treatment layer thickness is as per the specification.
Hardening layer thickness: To measure the thickness of the heat-treatment hardening layer.
Salt Spray Test: To check the corrosion resistance of the surface coating.
Balancing Test: To check the balance performance of the rotating parts.

The above inspection methods help us identify defects and ensuring the casting and forging parts meet the quality standards necessary for their intended applications. It is very important for us to ensure the goods quality, and we do each test strictly as per the drawing requirement.

Inspection Equipments