History of Metal
Ironwas first extracted from its ores over 5000 years ago. Until the 18thcentury, charcoal was used as the reducing agent. By the early 18thcentury, charcoal was in short supply and had become expensive.
Ironwas made by smelting iron ore or heating the ore up to melting point.The liquid iron was then cast into ingots, called pigs. The pig ironcould then either be reheated until it was molten and cast intomoulds, or heated and hammered into bars of raw wrought iron. Fromthem, raw iron is less brittle and malleable.. Attempts had been madeto use coal in the smelting process, but the sulphur in the coalproduced an iron which was too brittle for use. In 1709, anironmaster in England, Abraham Darby I, succeeded in producing castiron by using coal. He discovered a process whereby coal was firstturned into coke. So coke could be used to obtain iron. Darby kepthis discovery a secret and passed it on only to the next generationof his family.
Becausethey kept the secret, the idea of smelting iron using coke did notbecome widespread until the second half of the 18th century. TheDarby's method could only be used for cast iron. The search wasstill continued about producing both raw wrought iron and steel.Until that time, steel had been very expensive to produce and itsuses were limited.
History of Casting
Accordingto the archaeological findings, history of aluminium has a paststarting from 4000 B.C. In the melting furnaces used in ancienttimes, copper ore and wood are filled in stratified and metal meltedby the means of goatskin bellows operated by the feet are moulded byprocessing stone or baked clay. Casting technique was previously usedto manufacture flat-shaped parts such as axe with single-part mouldsand then two or more mould parts developed to produce round-shapedparts.
From2000 BC, baked clay cores were started to be manufactured for theproduction of hollow parts . Besides that, the method used formolding by using wax pattern and for creating mould cavity byleaving wax melted through heating was also developed in the sameages. From 1500 B.C., it is seen that casting techniques developedespecially in Mesopotamia and China and it is seen that the Chinesepeople specialized in producing multi-part moulds for manufacturingmixed parts. These developed techniques reached to the Meditarreneanand then to the Europeby the means of wars. Egyptian masters alsohave great contributions to the casting technique.
Castingapplications in Europe was first made under the auspices of thechurches and founders generally engaged in casting bell for churchesuntil the 13thcentury. Thus, the first bronze ball was cast by a priest in 1313who was a founder. Besides that, many art casting was manufacturedespecially in Italy,and masters at the foundry of popedom preparedthe first books about casting technology. Art applications and tradearising after renaissance has been the beginning of development ofan independent casting inductry.