Some customers of Qingdao TianHua YiHe foundry asked us about the difference between cast iron and ductile iron, including their advantages and disadvantages. Here in, we listed their main properties and hope to give you a reference for material selection. Actually, before comparison, we need to clarify a definition. The cast iron is meaning a category of iron material, whose carbon content is higher than 2.1%. Therefore, it includes many different types according to different graphite shapes and microstructures, such as grey iron, ductile iron, white iron, malleable iron, vermicular iron, austenitic iron etc.

Non-ferrous casting usually refers to removal of iron (including manganese, chromium and ferro alloys) of metal casting processes. The common materials for non ferrous casting: copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, magnesium, etc. Non ferrous castings are widely used in military, high-speed rail, ship, engineering machinery, pump, semiconductor equipment, wind power, power station and electrical equipment and so on.

The investment casting is also called lost wax casting. It’s generally used for custom complicated shape casting parts which cannot be reached by die casting or sand casting. It can made from almost any metal, especially stainless steel. The casted parts weight from grams to kilograms.

The gravity casting is one type of permanent mold casting. The gravity casting main advantages are the reusable mold, good surface finish, good dimensional accuracy, and high production rates.

The die casting is suitable for applications that require good surface finish and dimensional consistency. The main die casting alloys are: zinc, aluminium, copper, magnesium, lead, and tin etc.

Sand casting also called sand mold casting, it's used to produce a wide variety of metal components with complex geometries. These metal parts can vary greatly in size and weight, ranging from a couple ounces to several tons. The small sand cast parts include as gears, pulleys, crankshafts etc.