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Casting
The forming of metal parts by pouring molten metal or other material into a mould. This is the cheapest way of making large quantities of parts that are of shapes that cannot be produced by stamping. The parts are not generally as strong as those that can be made by forging, and parts made in a re-usable mould cannot be of as complicated shape as is possible with CNC machining from billets, because some shapes cannot be removed from a mould without breaking it.
An exotic form of casting, called investment casting or "lost wax" casting permits casting of complicated shapes by using single-use plaster moulds that can be broken apart to free the cast part from the mould. This is an expensive process used mainly for high quality lugs and fork crowns.
See also Jeff del Papa's article on Forging, Casting & CNC Machining on this site.
