Metal castings are fundamental building blocks, the three-dimensional integral shapes indispensable to
practically all other manufacturing industries.
Although the manufacturing path from the liquid to the finished shape is the most direct, this
directness involves the greatest difficulty. This is because so much needs to be controlled simultaneously,
including melting, alloying, molding, pouring, solidification, finishing, etc. Every one of these
production steps has to be correct since failure of only one will probably cause the whole product to be
unacceptable to the customer. In contrast, other processes such as forging or machining are merely
single-step processes. It is clearly easier to control each separate process step in turn.
It is no wonder therefore that the manufacture of castings is one of the most challenging of
technologies. It has defied proper understanding and control for an impressive five thousand years.
However, there are signs that we might now be starting to make progress