Uniform hardenability is achieved in plastic injection mold and die block tooling of 20 inches and larger by the use of 0.05-0.20 vanadium in conjunction with low carbon steel in which ingots are hot worked to form mold and die blocks having cross sections of 20 inches and larger followed by water quenching and tempering.

The casting of metals or salt and products made by casting metals or salts are described. For example, a method for casting metals or salts includes evacuating a mold that is pressurized with an inert gas and coupled to a pressurized source of molten metal or salt, wherein the pressurization of the source is sufficiently high to drive the molten metal or salt into the mold in response to the evacuation.

The invention relates to a method of casting a metal alloy ingot. The method includes providing an on one side open-ended mould having a mould cavity, positioning the open-ended mould such that the mould opening points side-wards or down-wards, providing a casting container with an upwardly positioned aperture, and filling said casting container with molten metal for one casting operation. The method also includes locating the casting container below the mould while the mould opening points side-wards or down-wards, and rotating the mould together with the casting container to a position whereby the mould opening points upwards such that the molten metal is conveyed into the open-ended mould until a desired thickness. Molten metal in the open-ended mould is cooled directionally through its thickness where the solidification front remains substantially monoaxial.

A method of manufacturing an open-cell type of porous aluminum includes: manufacturing a space-holder by using a water-soluble salt powder; stacking the space-holder in a container, and manufacturing an open-cell type of porous aluminum by injecting molten aluminum.

A method of manufacturing semi-solidified molten metal includes a step of keeping discharging inert gas from a probe in a continuous manner, and inserting the probe into molten metal held at a temperature that is higher than a temperature of the probe and that is equal to or higher than a liquidus-line temperature, a step of extracting the inserted probe from the molten metal such that at least part of a region of a surface of the inserted probe that is in contact with the molten metal is exposed from the molten metal, and a step of inserting the extracted probe again into the molten metal.

Metal composites, tooling and methods of additively manufacturing these are disclosed. Metal objects and structures as provided herein are additively manufactured from metal having an infill pattern infiltrated with a second metal. Also provided herein are methods of forming such objects and structures. Methods include additively manufacturing a metal structure having an interior printed using an infill. Steps can further include infiltrating the printed infill of the structure with a liquid metal thereby forming a bi-metal composite.

A method of forming a thermally isolated exhaust port, the method comprising applying an endothermic material to an exhaust port core in a mold for an engine cylinder head, forming the engine cylinder head with an exhaust port using a casting process, generating, in the cylinder head with the exhaust port during the casting process, nodular graphite iron proximate the endothermic material around the exhaust port core, and forming the thermally isolated exhaust port containing nodular graphite iron in the cylinder head.

A method of manufacturing an open-cell type of porous aluminum includes: manufacturing a space-holder by using a water-soluble salt powder; stacking the space-holder in a container, and manufacturing an open-cell type of porous aluminum by injecting molten aluminum.

A process for producing metal ingots includes the steps of: a) filling at least one ingot mould at a filling temperature with at least one metal charge in the solid state, which has a melting temperature higher than ambient temperature, b) melting the metal charge by heating the ingot mould to a heating temperature higher than or equal to the melting temperature of the metal charge, c) solidifying the molten metal charge into an ingot by cooling the ingot mould to a cooling temperature lower than the melting temperature of the metal charge and higher than the ambient temperature, d) extracting the ingot from the ingot mould at an extraction temperature, and e) repeating steps a) to d). At steady state, both the filling temperature and the extraction temperature are lower than or equal to the cooling temperature and higher than the ambient temperature.

A casting system and process employs sealed lightweight mold segments that are assembled into a fixture that serves as a mold transportation device that is delivered via a mold line to a production line roll-over system which performs as a metal pouring station. This system may be employed in sand, semi-permanent and permanent casting environments. The fixture is pressurized with He, inverted by the roll-over system, then connected to a low-pressure furnace where metal pouring begins while maintaining pressurized He in the mold cavity. A counter-gravity delivery system allows the low-pressure furnace to deliver molten lightweight material that is free from oxides and dissolved hydrogen gas into the mold cavity.