A report titled with Mysterious Casting Technology from HELI Entered European and American Markets on Anhui Economy News on August 24 attracted a lot of attentions.

Lost foam casting technology once was one of the mysterious and advanced casting technologies in the world, which was applied in the countries in Europe and America. At present, Anhui Forklift Group (forklift brand as HELI) successfully made use of the application technology to improve it to be world advanced through digesting the innovative technology, of which the casting products were exported in large batches to European and American markets where such technology was exactly created. 

Lost foam casting technology itself had been a story full of innovation and re-innovation. Also called full mould casting, lost foam casting cemented the wax or foam moulds of which the sizes were similar to the casting structures together to be a cluster, which would be buried in dry quartz sand to be shaped in the vibration after painting refractory coating and drying. These moulds would then be gasified through pouring under the negative pressure. The liquefied metal was placed in the position of the mould, and would form a casting structure after consolidation and cooling.

In 1958, an American professional in the industry of casting invented a technology to use extendable foam mould to shape metal casting structures, and got patented. After three years, two companies in Germany purchased this patented technology, improved it and invented the technology using dry sand to produce casting structures without cementing agent, applying another patent together with the American inventor. However, due to the dry sand without cementing agents, it was easy to collapse. Therefore, in 1967, the German experts replaced the silica sand by the iron shot that could be magnetized and used the magnetic field of force as the cementing agent, which was the so called magnetic casting nowadays. Then in 1971, a Japanese expert invented vacuum casting method, and the current lost foam casting learned from this and used vacuum method to fix the molding sand. In these 20 years, lost foam casting technology was rapidly spread in the worldwide scope.

Anhui Forklift Group once invested ten millions RMB to introduce the production line of lost foam casting from overseas, and spent one year to conduct technical trials and breakthroughs, establishing their own production line of lost foam casting which was at the highest level in domestic China within two years. 

Targeting at the technological difficulties such as mould manufacturing and carbon defect, Anhui Forklift Group specially established a mould institute and technological breakthrough team. Cooperating with scientific and technological institutes such as Tsinghua University, Anhui Forklift Group had broken through the technological difficulties in terms of innovation and quality, and intentively applied such an advanced technology to ferrous metal casting, receiving satisfied effects. As a new technique, lost foam casting was of near net shape with no moulds, parting joints and core sands, so the casting structures had no fins, burrs and draft angle, reducing the possibility of size difference due to the mould core and thus providing sufficient freedom to the design of the casting structures. Using this technology, complicated casting structures could be casted by combining the foam plastic moulds, preventing the situation that the wall of the casting structures were not even enough due to the incorrect size of core sand or inexact position of core setting in the traditional sand casting technology. As there was no cementing agent in the molding sand, the foam plastic had no harm to the environment under the low temperature, and the used sand had more than 95% recovery rate, which greatly reduced the production cost and decreased the weight of the rough casting.
  
The successful innovative application of lost foam casting technology had greatly enhanced the technological level of casting in domestic China, creating dramatic economic and social profits. The production line of lost foam casting in Anhui Forklift Group annually produced 4000 tons of casting structures, and the housing castings produced in the company won the golden medal at China FOUNDEX 2010 for successive three years. There were nearly 2000 sets of casting structures for MDT tank caps exported to America, with more than 30% of net profit rate. The lost foam casting technology could be the example of successful application, and was listed into the new casting course in the university.

About Anhui Heli

One of the ten largest manufacturers of forklifts in the world, we are also engaged in the production and sales of various construction vehicles, mining machinery, and related spare parts. Furthermore, we are also involved in the outputting of metal materials, petrochemicals (excluding dangerous chemicals), electronic products, electric devices and rubber products.

Having received government investment and support, in addition to cooperating with a Japanese forklift manufacturer in the past, our products meet international quality standards. In 1999 we received ISO9001 certification for our management system, with our products having been evaluated as compliant with European 'CE'quality and safety regulations.

Marketed under our proprietary "HELI" brand, our forklifts are suitable for use in various applications. These include ports and harbors, airports, construction sites, shopping malls, warehouses, and for short distance transportation. With capabilities for forklift truck design, manufacturing, testing and inspection that lead the domestic market, we are the sole company in this field to be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

With the only national-level forklift R&D center in China, we can also provide scientific consultancy for the domestic materials handling industry. If you are interested in any of our series, please feel welcome to contact us. We are looking forward to working together with your company for future cooperation.