Lost foam technology
Efficient casting with lower material use, waste and process emissions
Our Advanced Castings foundry in Anhui, China, supplies the AVK Group with cast components for valves, hydrants and other products. Its lost foam process supports complex component design while reducing material use, production steps and physical handling.
The process uses a foam pattern embedded in binder-free ceramic sand. When molten metal is poured into the mould, it replaces the foam to form the finished casting. This enables complex, near-net-shape components without separate sand cores, allowing thinner walls, minimal draft angles and lower component weight.
Integrating the core into a single foam pattern removes the need to manufacture and assemble separate sand cores. This shortens the production process and reduces manual handling and physical strain. The foam tooling can also support hundreds of thousands of production cycles.
More than 99% of the ceramic sand can typically be reclaimed, leaving around 1% as sand waste. Because the sand contains no chemical binders, the process also limits dust, chemical odours and emissions of volatile organic compounds.
Recycled steel scrap accounts for 85–90% of the melt, which is processed in electric induction furnaces. Compared with traditional sand casting, the lost foam process uses less energy and produces fewer particle emissions.
Together, these measures reduce material use, sand waste, process emissions and operator handling while supporting efficient production of complex cast components.
