What is Casting, Cast Iron, Cast Steel?
– Casting: is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a cavity of the desired shape/form, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process.
– Cast iron: an alloy of iron that contains more than 2% carbon, plus amounts of silicon and manganese, sulfur and phosphorus. Cast iron is formed by smelting iron ore, or melting pig iron, and mixing with scrap metals and other alloys. The liquid mixture is then poured into molds and allowed to cool and solidify.
– Cast Steel: Steel is well known, an alloy with carbon content lower than cast iron and can be: Carbon steel, Alloy steel, Stainless steel, when these alloys are manufactured using the casting process, which we clarified it above, we can call it (Cast Steel).
Common Cast Steel Grades examples from Piping standards: ASTM A216 Gr. WCB, ASTM A352 Gr. LCB, ASTM A351 Gr. CF8M.