Gold takes on new forms in this company's hands.

Since man discovered gold, he has poured it and other molten metals into molds, casting everything from jewelry to surgical tools to industrial parts.

Even yet, 6,000 years later, surviving foundries dot the Southland, flowing liquid metal into sand casts or ceramic molds.

But creating a mold can be relatively slow and expensive, meaning that today most metal parts are instead machined into shape.

Now a Northridge-based company is selling a new, $250,000 machine it says revolutionizes casting by dramatically reducing the time it takes to make a mold.

"What used to take 18 months, we can do in a few days," enthuses Yehoram Uziel, chief executive and founder of Soligen Inc., a high-tech shop in the ancient art of making shapes. "We make casting much more competitive again."

Soligen's machine basically works by the layering process -- thin layers of ceramic powder are laid down, with voids. Soligen's layers are reminiscent of the sedimentary layers seen on prehistoric, but now uplifted and exposed, lakebeds or alluvial fans.

Another way to look at it: If one piled up a line of doughnuts, a mold of a sort would be created by the holes, into which another material could be poured.

The compact-car-sized Soligen machine does the same thing, but with thin layers -- as thin as one five-hundredths of an inch -- and more complex voids than doughnut holes.

Virtually any shape can be created, including pipes, or shapes with internal cores.

"First, the machine spreads out a thin layer of ceramic powder," says Uziel. "Then, a spray-jet passes over the layer, spraying down a liquid binder."

Where the binder is sprayed, the mold is formed. Where no binder is sprayed, the powder remains loose, and is later removed. In this way, layer by layer, a laminated mold is built up.

When the mold, also called a shell, is done -- it is built up at about one-and-half inches per hour -- it is ready to receive molten metal. After the metal cools and hardens, the ceramic cast is broken off and discarded.

How does the Soligen machine know where to place the binder? "That's computer technology," explains Uziel, 42. "First, you create the image of what you want on the computer screen. Then the coordinates are related to the casting machine."

The ceramic powders and binders Uziel uses are not exotic; rather, they are already in industrial use. Another plus of the Soligen system: If a design needs to be refined, it is merely changed on the computer screen. The new mold results, without expensive tooling and casting.

Without the Soligen machine -- already purchased by such industrial giants as Pratt & Whitney and Johnson & Johnson -- the process of making a mold is lengthy.

In brief, the non-Soligen ceramic casting process is this: First, aluminum dies are created, itself a time-consuming and expensive process. Then, hot wax is poured into the dies. The resulting, cooled wax is in the shape of the final product.

Then the wax is dipped into vats of fine sands and binders, making a mold. Once the molds are complete, the wax is melted out, and hot metal poured in. The metal cools, and the ceramic molds are broken off.

This business of making molds is a $5 billion-a-year industry -- nevertheless, "it is the long way to make a mold," says Uziel.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given all the steps to making molds the traditional way, the business of casting in recent decades has been eclipsed by the machining of parts.

With the invention about 30 years ago of numerically or computer-controlled machining, the cutting and shaping of metal -- rather than casting -- has become the dominant way to make metal parts.

Computer-controlled metal-cutting machines can work relentlessly at making identical parts, saving labor.

But there are drawbacks to the metal-cutting machines: Only shapes that can be cut can be created. Internal cores, for example, or unusual, intricate shapes, can be impossible to make, says Uziel.

Too, much metal can be lost -- and if the alloy is costly, that can be an expensive proposition. "You can have 95 percent of the metal on the shop floor," sneers Uziel, a native of Tel Aviv.

And very hard alloys can wreak havoc on cutting blades.

The Soligen process was invented by Professor Emaneul Sachs and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is exclusively licensed to Soligen worldwide.

Uziel learned of the MIT process while he was vice president of 3D Systems Inc., a Valencia-based manufacturer in the business of making industrial prototypes quickly.

But even with all the promise and credentials of Soligen, Uziel has found the American capital system wanting. "Banks won't lend unless you have collateral," he says. "And the venture capitalists don't understand manufacturing."

Daunted by the American cold shoulder to manufacturing, Uziel has gone north to the Vancouver stock exchange, and there plans an initial public offering to finance his start-up. He will sell 40 percent of his company to the public.

So far, he has pulled his 14-employee company through by charging 80 percent of his machine price upfront of delivery.

In his 10,000-square-foot shop, Uziel is assisted by Adam Cohen, 34, MIT graduate, and Brian Nutter, 27, holder of a Ph.D. freshly minted at Texas Tech.

One recent afternoon, the trio was tuning up the latest Soligen machine and inspecting the spray-jet, which shoots binder into the powered ceramic at the rate of 62,500 drops a second.

Already Uziel has plans to improve his machine; by using more spray jets, binder could be shot into the ceramic powder more quickly, speeding up mold production even more.

"Perhaps some day we will be able to build molds in minutes, not hours," says Uziel. "I think the future for molds is very bright."