Timeline of casting technology.

Metalcasting...the cornerstone of our emergence from the Dark Ages.

Since the discovery of the earth's minerals, metalcasting has played an important role in society. An integral part of virtually every technological advance, castings allowed us to build equipment to feed our people, fight for independence, and create cars, trains and airplanes. In general, castings are the key ingredient in the recipe for a better way of life.

Foundrymen have always been respected and eminent craftsmen in every community. In many cases, their heroics extended far beyond the utilization of molten metal in creating usable products to advance society. They have been soldiers, politicians and inventors - and have reshaped North America with a first-class, working labor force that produces goods for the world. In fact, the conception of the U.S. was set into motion in no small part by the seven foundrymen who signed the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

During the wars of medieval times, foundrymen produced cannons. In peace, they recast the cannon metal back into bells. In the early Middle Ages, church bells were cast in churches by priests, abbots or bishops who were trained metal founders. As the metal was melted, the brethren stood around the furnace intoning psalms and prayers. The molten metal was then blessed and divine protection was asked for the bell, which usually bore the name of a saint.

The 20th century saw the explosive refinement of processes and materials used in the foundry for over 400 years. Vannoccio Biringuccio, the 16th century "father of the foundry industry," recommended using the dregs of beer vats and human urine as binders for molding sand, both of which were in use well into this century.

"There has been more casting progress since World War II than in the previous 3000 years," wrote Bruce L. Simpson in History of the Metalcasting Industry. "Still, the demand goes on for foundries to surpass themselves in quantity and quality. Metalcasting remains a basically essential industry, as necessary to space vehicles as it was to mankind's very first machines. As science is applied more and more, so the skill, education and pay of foundrymen goes up and ever up, increasing in turn the total wealth of the world."

From its contributions in providing jobs and employee skills to delivering the dependable, high-quality and cost-effective components necessary to advance technology, metalcasting has impacted virtually every improvement experienced by each passing generation. Our world could not have advanced at its rapid rate without the strength, endurance and ingenuity of the foundryman.

Following are some of the key technological events that have changed the face of the casting process and its end products.

9000 B.C. - Earliest metal objects of wrought native copper are produced in the Near East.

3000-2500 B.C. - Small objects are cast via lost wax (investment casting) process in Near East.

3200 B.C. - The oldest casting in existence, a copper frog, is cast in Mesopotamia.

3000 B.C. - Early foundrymen cast bronze tools and weapons in permanent stone molds.

1500 B.C. - Wrought iron is discovered in Near East.

600 B.C. - The first cast iron object, a 600-lb tripod, is cast by the Chinese.

233 B.C - Iron plowshares are cast.

200 B.C. - Oldest iron castings still in existence produced during the Han Dynasty.

500 - Cast crucible steel is produced in India.

1200s - Loam molding or sweep molding is used by European foundrymen to cast bells for cathedrals.

1239 - King Edward I of England imposes an environmental control law decreeing death to anyone burning coal, with the exception of smiths.

1252 - The colossal statute, the Great Buddha at Kamakura, Japan, is cast in high-lead tin bronze. The project began in the 700s. Its head alone weighed 140 tons.

1313 - The first cannon is cast in bronze by a monk in the city of Ghent.

1400s - During the siege of Constantinople, heavy guns are cast from bronze "on the spot," virtually under the walls of the besieged city.

1400s - Movable, cast lead type for printing presses revolutionizes the world's methods of communication.

1480 - Vannoccio Biringuccio (1480-1539), the first true foundryman and the "father of the foundry industry," is born. The founder of the Vatican, his De La Pirotechnia is the first written account of proper foundry practice.

1500s - Sand is introduced as a molding material in France.

1612 - Mined from under the sea, seacoal is mentioned for the first time by German foundryman and inventor, Simon Sturtevant.

1619 - North America's first iron furnace is built at Falling Creek, VA, a branch of the James River, 60 miles from Jamestown colony. Three years later, it is destroyed during a raid by Native Americans.

1642 - America's first iron foundry (and second industrial plant), Saugus Iron Works, near Boston, pours the first American casting, the Saugus pot.

1645 - Earliest recorded use of term "foundry" appears in the Oxford English Dictionary in its variant "founderie."

1646 - Joseph Jenks, the master molder who cast the Saugus pot, receives the American colonies' first machine patent for a fire engine, which contained iron castings.

1661 - First U.S. copper deposits are discovered by Gov. Winthrop in Middletown, CT.

1709 - Two developments by Abraham Darby, Coalbrookdale, England, improve casting methods. He developed the first true foundry flask to modernize molding practices (which had been carried out in pits on the floor by use of pattern boards tied together or in crude box frames); and also initiated the use of coke as a furnace fuel for melting.

1722 - A.F. de Reamur, recognized as the world's first metallurgical chemist, develops whiteheart malleable iron.

1750 - Benjamin Huntsman reinvents cast crucible steel process in England, a process that disappeared after first being developed in India.

1750 - English parliament prohibits the refining of pig iron or the casting of iron in the American colonies, contributing to the American Revolution.

1775 - Revolutionary patriot Paul Revere, who operated a bell-and-fittings foundry in Boston, rides from Boston to Lexington warning colonists of the British Invasion.

1776 - Foundrymen Charles Carroll, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Philip Livingston and Stephen Hopkins sign the American Declaration of Independence.

1779 - Iron bridge constructed above England's Severn River marks the first major use of cast iron as a structural material.

1794 - Englishman John Wilkinson invents the first metal-clad cupola, using a steam engine to provide the air blast.

1797 - First cast plow in U.S. is invented by Charles Newbold, Sauk, NJ.

1801 - First pipe castings are produced by Robeson and Paul's, Weymouth, NJ.

1804 - Malleable iron is invented by Samuel Lucas in Europe.

1809 - Centrifugal casting is developed by A.G. Eckhardt of Soho, England.

1815- First cupola introduced in U.S. (Baltimore).

1817 - First iron water line in the U.S., 400 ft long, laid in Philadelphia.

1818 - First U.S. cast steel produced by the crucible process at historic Valley Forge Foundry.

1825 - Aluminum, the most abundant metal in the earth's crust, is isolated.

1830s - The first blackheart malleable iron is produced in Newark, NJ, by Seth Boyden.

1831 - William Garrard, Cincinnati, establishes the first commercial steel operation in the U.S.

1837 - First dependable molding machine on market is made and used by S. Jarvis Adams Co., Pittsburgh.

1832 - Alexander L. Holley (1832-1882), one of America's first metallurgists, is born.

1845 - Open hearth furnace is developed.

1847 - Cast steel guns are made by Krupp Works in Germany.

1847 - Asa Whitney, Philadelphia, obtains a patent on a process for annealing chilled-iron car wheels cast with chilled tread and flange.

1847 - John Deere commissions Jones and Quiggs Steel Works, Pittsburgh, to cast and roll a steel plow at half its previous cost.

1849 - A manually operated diecasting machine is patented to supply rapidly cast lead type for newspapers.

1850 - Drop-bottom cupola is developed.

1851 - Sir Henry Bessemer, England, develops the steel-making process that bears his name.

1857 - Regenerative open-hearth furnace is developed.

1863 - Metallography is developed by Henry C. Sorby, Sheffield, England, enabling foundrymen to polish, etch and microscopically examine metal surfaces for physical analysis.

1867 - James Nasmythe, inventor of the steam hammer, develops a gear-tilted safety ladle to prevent pouring accidents.

1870 - First open hearth furnace installed in U.S., a vital tool for growth of a nation.

1870 - Sandblasting is developed for large castings by R.E. Tilghman of Philadelphia.

1874 - The Colliau cupola, the first commercially made cupola in America, is introduced.

1876 - The first known aluminum assembly in U.S., an engineer's transit, contains aluminum castings.

1878 - Sir William Siemens develops the electric arc furnace.

1880-87 - Sly tumbling mill, the first such cleaning mill in foundries, is developed by W.W. Sly of Cleveland, greatly reducing hand-chipping and grinding operations to allow a custom-finished product.

1884 - First architectural application of aluminum, a 100-lb cast aluminum pyramid, is mounted on the tip of the Washington Monument.

1886 - Charles M. Hall, age 22, discovers a process of aluminum reduction through electrolysis. The invention replaced chemical reduction and lowered the metal's cost, modernizing the aluminum industry.

1887 - Eli Millett invents a core oven for drying small cores in individual drawers.

1890 - First motor-driven mold conveyor installed, integrating molding, pouring and cooling operations.

1897 - Iowa dentist B.F. Philbrook adapts the lost-wax investment casting process for producing dental inlays, the process' first non-art application of the modern metal-casting age.

1898 - Poulson and Hargraves (U.K.) produce the first sand molds bonded with sodium silicate.

early 1900s - First patent for low pressure permanent mold casting process issued to England's E.H. Lake.

1901 - American Steel Foundries (St. Louis) produces the first centrifugally cast rail wheels.

1903 - Wright Brothers' first successful airplane contains a 152-lb cast aluminum crankcase, produced either at Miami Brass Foundry or the Buckeye Iron and Brass Works.

1905 - Diecasting machine is patented by H.H. Doehler.

1906 - First electric arc furnace is installed in U.S. at Holcomb Steel Co., Syracuse, NY.

1908 - Stockham Homogenous Sand Mixer Co., Piqua and Newark, OH, releases sand cutter.

1912 - First muller with individually mounted revolving mullers of varying weights is marketed by Peter L. Simpson.

1912 - Sand slinger invented by E.O. Beardsley & W.F. Piper, Oregon Works.

1913 - First low-frequency electric induction furnace is installed in U.S. at Crucible Steel Casting Co.'s Lansdowne, PA, plant for special melting.

1915 - Experimentation begins with bentonite, a colloidal clay of unusually high green and dry strength.

1916 - Coreless induction furnace is invented by Dr. Edwin Northrup, Princeton Univ.

1918 - First fully automated foundry, Rockford, IL, casts hand grenade hulks for army.

1919 - Saito and Hayashi introduce the spiral fluidity test.

1924 - Henry Ford sets "production record" of 1 million autos in 132 working days.

1930s - Spectrography is pioneered by Univ. of MI professors for metal analysis.

1930 - First high-frequency coreless electric induction furnace is installed at Lebanon Steel Foundry, Lebanon, PA.

1937 - Austempered microstructure in cast iron is recognized.

1939 - Iron oxide, a no-veining compound, is introduced to foundries.

1940 - Wood flour is introduced into foundry practice as a sand additive.

1940 - Chvorinov develops relationship between solidification time and casting geometry.

early 1940s - Statistical process control is first employed as a quality control tool in U.S. machine shops, principally to control dimensional tolerances.

1940s - Inoculation of gray iron becomes common, as high quality cast irons replace scarce steel.

1941 - U.S. Lt. Col. W.C. Bliss tells the AFA St. Louis Chapter that "the side which maintains the larger production of war goods is going to win the war."

1942 - Industry increases use of synthetic sands for many war materials.

1943 - War Production Board reports every U.S. soldier requires 4900 lb of steel. In World War I, only 90 lb were required.

1946 - Allied investigators uncover German foundry research on applications of radiation devices, X-ray tubes and high-temperature alloys.

1947 - The shell process, developed by J. Croning to produce mortar and artillery shells for the Germans during World War II, is discovered by U.S. officials and made public. Ten years later, he receives an AFS Gold Medal for his invention.

late 1940s - Thermal sand reclamation is applied to core sands and, to a limited degree, clay-bonded sands.

1948 - First commercially produced heat of ductile iron is produced at Malleable Iron Co., Jamestown, NY.

1949 - A U.S. patent on ductile iron, a cast iron with a fully spheroidal graphite structure, is granted to K.D. Millis, A.P. Gagnebin and N.B. Pilling.

early 1950s - Experimentation in high pressure molding begins, as foundrymen begin to increase the air pressure in air squeeze molding machines to increase mold hardness (density). At the same time, molding machine manufacturers increase the size of their squeeze cylinders.

1950s - Fast drying core oils are introduced.

1950s - The pneumatic scrubber is developed to reclaim clay-bonded sands. Several wet reclamation systems are also in operation.

1952 - D Process is developed for making shell molds with fine sand and fast dry oil by Harry Dietert.

1952 - Sodium-silicate/C[O.sub.2] system is introduced.

1953 - Hotbox system of making and curing cores in one operation is developed, eliminating the need for dielectric drying ovens.

1954 - The C[O.sub.2] process, a novel mold and coremaking process, is introduced from Germany.

mid-1950s - Squeeze casting process originates in Russia.

1956 - First Betatron is installed in U.S. foundry at ESCO Corp., Portland, OR, for radiography of heavy steel castings.

1957 - Vertically-parted flaskless molding production machine is invented by V.A. Jeppesen, Copenhagen Technical Institute.

1958 - H.F. Shroyer obtains a patent for the full mold process, forerunner of the lost foam casting process.

1958 - Phenolic and furan acid-catalyzed nobake binder systems are introduced.

1960 - Furan hotbox binders in use for core production.

1960s - Compactibility and methylene blue clay tests are developed for green sand control.

1961 - Alcohol-borne shell coating is introduced (warm coated).

1962 - New C[O.sub.2] sand testing method is introduced for sands bonded with sodium silicate and cured with C[O.sub.2].

1963 - Shell flake resin is introduced.

1962 - Phenolic hotbox binders introduced.

1964 - Dell & Christ's paper on mold inoculation spurs the development of many of today's forms of mold and late stream inoculation.

1964 - Use of unbonded sand is patented for lost foam casting process.

1965 - Oil urethane nobake binder systems in use for cores/molds.

1965 - General Electric's Jim Henzel and Jack Keverian predict freezing patterns in large steel castings via computer.

1965 - Cast metal matrix composites are first poured at International Nickel Co., Sterling Forest, NY, by Pradeep Rohatgi.

late-1960s - Scanning electron microscope (SEM) is invented in England.

late 1960s - Thermal analysis begins to be used in iron foundries for the rapid determination of carbon equivalent and phosphorous contents, making it possible to study the transformation of an alloy during cooling.

1968 - The coldbox process (a phenolic urethane/amine gassed binder system) is introduced by L. Toriello and J. Robins for high production coremaking.

1970 - The sodium-silicate/ester catalyzed nobake binder system is introduced for cores/molds.

1970s - Digital codes are developed to simulate solidification and fluid flow analysis.

1971 - The vacuum-forming or V-Process molding method of using unbonded sand with the use of a vacuum is developed in Japan.

1971 - Counter-gravity (vacuum) casting process is developed by Hitchiner Mfg., Milford, NH.

1971 - Rheocasting is developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1971 - U.S. Congress passes Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and Clean Air Act.

1972 - First production austempered ductile iron (ADI) component, designed and engineered by Tecumseh, is produced by Wagner Castings Co.

1972 - CANMET uses real-time radiography to study the flow of steel in molds.

1973 - First foundry argon oxygen decarburization (AOD) unit installed at ESCO Corp.

1974 - Fiat introduces the in-mold process for ductile iron treatment.

1974 - The phenolic urethane nobake binder system is introduced for mold production.

mid-1970s - Coinciding with the EPA Resource Recovery and Conservation Act, foundries began to examine new beneficial reuse routes for spent foundry sand, leading to applications such as cement and paving products, bricks and flowable fill.

1976 - Foote Mineral Co. and BCIRA (U.K.) develop compacted graphite iron.

Late-1970s - Acid-slag cupola practices plus external desulfurization with Ca[C.sub.2] begin to replace basic slag cupolas.

1977 - General Motors installs ADI rear differential sets in passenger cars.

1977 - The alumina phosphate nobake binder system, an inorganic nonsilicate binder, is introduced for mold production.

1978 - Furan/S[O.sub.2] binder system is developed for cores/molds.

1978 - Polyol urethane nobake binder system is introduced.

early 1980s - Tundish ladle is embraced by industry as favored practice of nodularizing ductile iron.

1980s - Three-dimensional relational parameters are developed for CAD solid models.

1981 - High production lost foam casting of intake manifolds begins at General Motors' Massena, NY, plant.

1982 - Warmbox binder system is introduced.

1983 - Air impulse molding process is developed.

1983 - Free radical cure/S[O.sub.2] binder system is introduced.

1984 - Charles Hull applies for a patent on stereolithograpy process. Other rapid prototyping techniques emerge shortly after.

1984 - Phenolic ester nobake binder is introduced.

1985 - Phenolic ester coldbox binder is developed.

mid-1980s - Computer solidification software is commercialized.

Late 1980s - 3D visualization techniques are developed.

Late 1980s - CaO/Ca[F.sub.2] desulfurization of cupola-melted ductile base iron begins to replace Ca[C.sub.2] method.

Late 1980s - Lanxide, Newark, DE, develops pressureless metal infiltration process for particulate-reinforced metal bodies.

1987 - Westmoreland Malleable Iron Works, Westmoreland, NY, is cited as oldest U.S. malleable iron operation in continuous operation (founded in 1833 as Oakhill Malleable Iron Co.)

1988 - Rapid prototyping and CAD/CAM technologies combine in a breakthrough to shorten tooling development time.

1988 - Ford adapts Cosworth process precision sand casting process for high production.

1991 - "Dry ice" C[O.sub.2] process is developed for cleaning coreboxes and foundry tooling.

1993 - First foundry application of a plasma ladle refiner (melting and refining in one vessel) occurs at Maynard Steel Casting Co., Milwaukee.

1994 - Use of low-expansion sand for lost foam is patented by Brunswick Corp., Lake Forest, IL, to enable precision casting of large components.

1995 - Babcock and Wilcox, Barberton, OH, patents a lost foam-vacuum casting process to produce stainless steel castings with low carbon content.

1996 - Cast metal matrix composites (brake rotors) are used for the first time in a production model automobile, the Lotus Elise.

Sources

C.F. Walton, T.J. Opar, Iron Castings Handbook, Iron Castings Society, Inc., (1981).

J. Gerin Sylvia, Cast Metals Technology, AFS, (1990).

E.L. Kotzin, Metalcasting & Molding Processes, AFS (1981).

J.P. LaRue, Basic Metalcasting, AFS (1989).

C.A. Sanders and D.C. Gould, History Cast in Metal, AFS, (1976).

modern casting, various issues and history.

Proceedings of 1992 Coreless Induction Melting Conference, AFS, (1992).

B.L. Simpson, History of the Metalcasting Industry, AFS (1948).

J.A. Gitzen, Progress in the Development and Utilization of Additives in the Foundry Industry, AFS (1957).

1995 Lost Foam Technology and Applications Conference Proceedings, AFS (1995).

Aluminum: Design and Application (Vol. II), ASM, (1967).

High-Pressure Molding, 2nd Edition, AFS (1987).

Foundry Trade Journal (Sept. 11, 1986).

Metals Handbook, Ninth Edition, Vol. 15 Casting, ASM International (1988).

1991 AFS International Sand Reclamation Conference, AFS (1991)

AFS/CMI Conference on Green Sand Technology - Productivity for the '80s, AFS (1983).

ADI: The New Benchmark Material, video, Applied Process, Inc. Special thanks to Bill Henning, Miller & Co.; Bob Voigt, Penn State Univ.; Matt Granlund, Foundry Systems Control; Paul Carey, Ashland Chemical Co.; Stubbs Davis, Durametal Corp.; Raymond Donahue, Mercury Marine Div.; Roy Lobenhofer, Lobenhofer Consulting, Inc.; Norris Luther, Luther & Assoc.; and Bill Huelsen, retired, AFS.