Free online courseMechanical - Metal Casting

Course Description

Metal casting is one of the most important foundations of modern manufacturing, turning molten metal into components that power vehicles, machines, construction systems, and everyday products. This free online course develops practical, industry-relevant understanding of how cast parts are planned, produced, and verified—from the first idea of a component through mould preparation, pouring, solidification, and finishing. If you want a strong start in mechanical and industrial basics, or you work alongside foundry, machining, or production teams and need clearer technical confidence, this course helps you speak the language of casting and make better engineering decisions.

You will learn how different casting routes compare and why process selection matters for cost, accuracy, surface finish, and production volume. The course builds core competence in sand casting by explaining terminology, tooling, and how moulding sands are designed, tested, and controlled for performance. You will also explore patterns, allowances, and the role of cores in creating internal features, linking design choices to real outcomes on the shop floor.

As the course progresses, you gain a solid grasp of gating and risering concepts that directly influence yield and soundness. You will understand how metal flows into the cavity, how feeding combats shrinkage, and how efficiency considerations affect both quality and economics. Common casting defects are treated as engineering problems: you will learn how they form, how to recognize them, and what process and design adjustments help prevent them.

You will also connect materials and process behavior through topics like melting furnaces, molten metal treatment, fluidity, nucleation, and solidification. The course surveys major cast alloys—cast irons and steels, aluminum and magnesium alloys, and copper, zinc, and titanium systems—so you can appreciate why specific alloys are developed and what trade-offs drive their selection. Beyond sand casting, you will understand the principles and applications of die casting, investment casting, continuous casting, centrifugal casting, evaporative pattern casting, plaster moulding, vacuum sealed moulding, and squeeze casting.

Finally, the course emphasizes what happens after pouring: shakeout, fettling, finishing, inspection, testing, and quality control, along with design considerations, economic thinking, and essential environment, health, and safety practices. By the end, you will be able to follow a casting workflow end to end, communicate more effectively with production teams, and evaluate casting choices with clearer technical reasoning.