LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Casting: Process
built 201 days ago
One of the more common activities of a pewtersmith is casting pewter. This is the process whereby pewter is heated until it becomes a liquid, and is then poured into a mold. It is then allowed to cool, hardening again into a solid. The cooling pewter takes on a new and desired shape. Jewelry, handles for hollowware, animal miniatures, and various collectibles are examples of pewter items that are cast.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The world's first commercial strip casting facility for plain-carbon steel sheet, utilizing the Castrip® Process, has set a new record for sequence casting. The facility, a part of Nucor Corporation's (NYSE: NUE - News) Crawfordsville, Ind., steel plant, cast 24 ladles of steel, continuously, over a 38-hour period in late December. Total throughput for the record was 2,467 tons cast, while producing 2,387 tons of prime coils. The previous record of nine ladles and 12 hours of casting had stood until early December when it was eclipsed with a 14-heat sequence, followed a week later by an 18-heat sequence. Within 10 days, both achievements were shattered by this world-record performance.
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[One] method of casting pewter is known as "slush" casting. This process uses a mold made of bronze. The bronze mold allows the pewter to flow into the mold and is poured out again before cooling and completely hardening. Pewter takes on the shape of the mold and remains hollow at the same time. The liquid pewter cools faster closest to the bronze, allowing the center to be poured back out, leaving the inside hollow. Tankard handles that are large need to be hollow so that they do not make the piece top heavy or tip to one side. A bud vase that is slush cast is another example of when the hollow casting is deliberate and comes in very handy.
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