Did you know that many people believe that brass is probably one of the oldest materials still in use today and that it may have been around since pre-historic times? That question may not yet have been resolved but one thing that’s for sure is that most people find brass to be one of the best metals to cast with. This is because of its unique properties which over the years have seen it used to make everything from coins to all manner of musical instruments.
Brass is, at its very basic, an alloy of copper and zinc. This means that it draws its intrinsic properties from the two metals and that someone, say a sand casting foundry, could vary its properties by varying the proportions of the individual metal elements contained within it. One of the main qualities that make brass casting so attractive is because brass has a generally low melting point. That means that the furnaces do not necessarily have to be too hot and it can be used even with the smaller homemade furnaces. In addition, you can easily graduate from brass to bronze sand casting since you simply need to add or subtract a few alloys from what you already have. Another reason why brass is still so popular today is because of its unique gleam and yellow shine. Many artists find this attractive and they use brass to make sculptures and jewellery, as well as many other decorative items. Of course these guys do not really need industrial grade brass for their purposes and scrap brass, which is much easier to find, should serve them just as well. But if the quality of the material has to be superb then they will be better off talking to a sand casting company that can present them with cheap manufacturing options.
Brass Casting Methods
There are generally three main methods that can be used for brass casting, although it is worth noting that most experienced metal casters will usually tend to experiment more with brass and may sometimes use a hybrid of the methods mentioned here. That said, the three most commonly used brass casting methods include;
Sand casting- this is definitely the oldest way to cast brass and it is still very popular. It is a great option if you want a cost efficient solution and the final products do not have to look incredibly attractive.
Die casting- this method uses a specially designed, reusable mold made of stainless steel to cast and recreate tons of identical products making it the most preferred option for large foundries that engage in large scale production of prototypes
Lost wax casting- although it is more commonly associated with bronze sand casting, lost wax casting can also be used for brass casting as well as in casting of many other metals too. As the name suggests, it uses a wax model of the final product covered with a ceramic shell which is then injected with the metal to replace the wax and the shell finally chipped away to reveal the brass product.
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