Industry Forecast
aviation and military industry and thus developed into China’s high value- added investment casting industrial system, focused on domestic market. Thanks to the reform and opening- up policy that began in 1978, the investment casting industry in the Chinese Mainland has been vigorously expanding in the international market since the 1990s and general commercial casting production has entered a stage of rapid development. After over 60 years of efforts, China
S
has now formed a complete investment casting industrial system, providing a large number of high-quality castings for the domestic and overseas markets, as well as a broad market for equipment, materials and service suppliers around the world. However, with the acceleration
of industrialization in the Chinese Mainland and improving of people’s living standards, investment casting foundries are also faced with some new problems. The increase of labor costs and stricter requirements for environmental protection are two important issues. In addition, changes in raw materials cost and exchange rates, changes in the international trade environment are also problems. At present, Mainland China has
two types of investment casting process, colloidal silica shell process and sodium silicate shell process. Sodium silicate shell process has been under great pressure of environmental protection and most foundries are thinking about the way of transformation. Some foundries consider turning to colloidal silica shell process, but hope to solve the problem of improving efficiency and reducing cost. Some foundries turn to sand mold casting and the corresponding sand mold casting technology is also need continuous improvement. In terms of colloidal silica shell
26 ❘ January 2019 ® Figure 2: Output value of investment casting industry in the Chinese Mainland
process, it can be divided into three fields: high value-added casting, automotive casting and general commercial casting. The casting market in the three fields has improved in 2018, but the specific performance is different.
High Value-Added Casting High value-added castings, represented by aviation castings and gas turbine castings, have attracted more and more attention. The equipment conditions of the foundries are continuously
improving, and the technology research and development are also advancing. Some private capital has entered this field, which provides more impetus for the development of high value- added castings in Chinese Mainland. Because China is a country with a large population and a large territory, the demand for both civilian and military aircraft is strong, which has also boosted related industries. Compared with 2017, the market of high value-added castings increased
Figure 1: Automotive sales by month from 2016 to 2018
ince the 1950s, investment casting technology in China Mainland has started to meet the needs of
China Investment Casting Industry in Chinese Mainland by Zhigang LU, Tsinghua University & Yun ZHANG, Investment Casting Branch of China Foundry Association
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