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What Is The Lost Foam Casting:Lost foam casting is a type of evaporative pattern casting. This method is quite similar to investment casting which uses wax instead of foam in the pattern making process.
The foam pattern was first used in metal working in 1958. Although this mold casting technique is not as popular as other methods such as sand mold casting or permanent casting, it maintains outstanding advantages, especially in casting complicated and precise molds.
Unlike traditional methods which include the pattern withdrawn process before casting and require skillfulness in the pattern removal step, with respect to the lost foam method, the pattern is evaporated when the molten metal is poured into helping to reduce these considerations.

The Lost Foam Casting Process:

• The lost foam casting technology included 5 steps: designing the pattern; applying insulation painting; placing the pattern into the sand flask; pouring the molten metal; and collecting the castings. Firstly, a pattern is designed from polystyrene foam. This type of foam plays an important role in this casting method. It is a good thermal insulator and chemical resistance, enable working normally at the temperature below 75DegreeC. Depending on difficulty and details of the product, the foam pattern can be made from different manners. For highly detailed casting patterns, the foam pattern is partly made and glued together. For the small volume, foundries often make patterns by hand-cut or machined from a solid foam block. If the pattern is simple enough, a hot wire foam cutter can be applied. In case the volume is large, the pattern can be mass-produced by a process similar to injection molding. Polystyrene beads are injected in a pre-heated aluminum mold at low pressure. After that steam is applied leading to polystyrene expands more to fill the empty cavity and then form the pattern or a section. The final pattern is approximately 97.5% air and 2.5% polystyrene.

Casting Process:

• Once the pattern is formed, it is coated with insulation paint, placed in a flask and surrounded in un-bonded sand and compacted. The covering paint works to increase the durability of the mold surface, protect from erosion, and broken. Whereas, the flask is designed suitably for this method so that when the molten metal is poured into the mold, the gas generated by foam burning is withdrawn completely. After molten metal is poured into the foam pattern, the foam pattern is burned out and the casting is formed.

Advantages Of The Lost Foam Casting Process:- Lost foam casting maintains excellent advantages in comparison with other metal casting methods.

• It is able to cast very complicated castings.
• It is advantageous for guaranteeing high precision and smooth surface finish.
• Casting by the lost foam technique guarantees nearly no errors or defects.
• Generally, this method is also more economic than investment casting because it involves a few steps. Applying the lost foam process, the foundries can save a lot of labor and production costs.

Disadvantages Of The Lost Foam Casting Process:- Except from numerous advantages, there are two main limitations of the lost foam casting technology.

• Firstly, the pattern costs can be high for low volume applications.
• Another disadvantage is the patterns are damaged or distorted easily because of its low strength.

With an impressive growth record in this highly competitive industry, we are providing a qualitative range of Automatic Molding Line.
Molding lines (a set of non-standard equipment) are designed for mass production of castings with a volume of up to 650 tons per month. The productivity of the line is determined by the number of flasks and their dimensions. The line is a system closed in a cycle, which allows to carry out the production process from filling the model to obtaining a casting.
The line consists of the following elements: a closed system of roller tables for moving flasks, flasks, a sand dispenser, an evacuation system for flasks, a program vibrating table (a unique development of the AKS Plant together with the Institute of Vibration, due to an innovative control system, allows you to get castings of any complexity, according to its functionality surpassing even imported analogues of world manufacturers), sand circulation and sand regeneration system, hydraulic tilting.

For catering the variegated demands of our respected clients, we are highly engrossed in providing a wide range of Vertical Sand Cooler. 
Designed for dedusting and cooling molding sand (bulk materials with a fraction of 0.08 mm to 0.8 mm with a density of 1.2-1.8 tons per cubic meter) to the operating temperature. Works on the principle of "fluidized bed". Water heat exchangers are installed in the "boiling" zone of the sand, they are used in the summer. The high-pressure fan creates a fluidized bed of sand. The air passing through the hot sand takes heat and dust fraction, then it enters the cyclone-type dust collector through the aspiration branch. After the cyclone, another fan is installed to equalize the air pressure in the cooler.
The cooler is supplied with an aspiration system. A temperature sensor is installed at the outlet cooler, which allows you to control the temperature of the sand. The temperature of the sand at the outlet of the cooler depends on the cooling time and the temperature of the air supplied to the cooler. The sand cooling time can be adjusted according to the time of operation of the air damper for unloading. 

Part of the equipment:

• Cooler body
• High pressure fan
• Air distribution manifold
• Cyclone
• The fan is centrifugal
• Air ducts

The technological unit is designed for cooling molding sand. The sand cooler uses the "fluidized bed" principle, i.e. Atmospheric air passes through the sand layer at high speed, causing it to boil. The air that cools the sand carries the dust fraction into the cyclone, and, having passed it, purified, is released into the atmosphere. A water heat exchanger is installed in the sand boiling zone, which speeds up the cooling process. The time spent by the sand in the cooler can be adjusted by the operator from the control panel by closing the pneumatic valve when unloading into the elevator.
In our LFC equipment, we use an air sand cooler with a built-in water heat exchanger and, depending on the climatic zone of use of the equipment and its performance, we supplement the sand hopper with another water heat exchanger. This scheme allows you to guaranteed cool the foundry sand to its operating temperature. 
The use of a sand cooler designed by Castofoam India Pvt. Ltd is possible not only in the LFC process, but also in any technological process where quartz sand with similar temperature parameters is used (in the production of building mixtures, glass production, etc.)