Foseco Foundryman's Handbook

Over the past decade much has changed in castings technology. The industry has become more international and increasingly castings are being made in developing industrial countries either for internal use or for export. International companies,particularly the large automotive companies, source their castings in many countries, wherever quality and price are competitive. The aim of the Foundryman's Handbook is to provide a practical reference book for all those concerned with making castingsin any of the commonly used alloys, by any of the usual moulding methods. International SI units are used throughout, but in almost all cases conversions to the more familiar Metric and Imperial units are given. Wherever possible, Casting AlloySpecifications include equivalent specifications for several countries as well as international specifications. Individual chapters cover the casting of light alloys, copper-based alloys, all types of cast-iron and steel. For each group of alloys,specifications and typical applications are described, together with details of melting practice, metal treatment and casting practice. Sand moulding materials, including green sand and chemically bonded sands are also included. Since the last editionwas written there have been many major technical developments including new sand binders, the rotary degassing of aluminium alloys, the adoption of metal filtration of castings and widespread use of computers for the optimisation of feeder design. Theuse of solidification simulation by computer is becoming a useful tool for the practical foundryman. These developments have necessitated re-writing the handbook almost completely, however the layout of the previous edition has been followed as far aspossible.