Green Sand Versus Foamcast

Green Sand Versus foamcast® Lost Foam Metal Casting Technology.

Property	Green Sand Casting	foamcast® Metal Casting Technology
Complex Internal Features and Part Consolidation.	Complexity determined by sand core limitations, geometry, strength, and cost.	Extensive and complex internal features (as thin as 3mm) available in foamcast®, based on detail duplication and pattern assembly in foam.
Dimensional Tolerances	+/- 0.030" is typical depending on part size, complexity, and geometry	+/- 0.005"-0.010" is typical depending on part size, complexity, and geometry.
Surface Finish Capabilities	250-600 microinches typical. Depends on grain fineness of sand.	60-250 microinches typical. Depends on bead size and ceramic coating grain fineness.
Feature Accuracy	Core movement and shift between mold halves across the parting line limit feature accuracy.	No cores or mold halves to shift and degrade feature accuracy.
Parting Line and Draft Angles	Parting lines and draft angles are necessary for molding.	No parting lines in the mold and minimal draft on tools.
Environmental Costs	Sand recovery requires binder removal and time consuming sand clean-up	Sand is binder free, so it can be easily and rapidly recovered at low cost.
Tool Life	Wear on wood and metal tools from sand abrasion	Low wear and long life with aluminum tool

For a comparion of foamcast® - lost foam casting process with Lost Wax Process please click here

Note: Non-proprietary terms that have been used to describe similar processes include: cavityless casting, evaporative foam casting, foam vaporization casting, lost pattern casting, the castral process, expanded polystyrene molding, EPC, Evaporative Pattern Casting, LFT, Lost Foam Technology, Expendable Pattern Casting, lostfoam, shellfoamcast, etc.