The chapter provides details of operations and activities in evaporative pattern casting (EPC) Process. The process was developed in the year 1956 to tackle some of the inadequacies of the traditional sand casting processes but has in itself some challenges that should be taken care of if sound castings would be obtained. The challenges come mainly from the evaporative pattern employed as pattern material in the process. The material makes the process to be sensitive to process variables such that proper and adequate control should be ensured to have castings of sound integrity. Some of the known process variables are pouring temperature, refractory coating, vibration and pattern and molding materials. In the whole the EPC is known to have edge over the traditional sand casting methods.Keywords: pattern, molding, casting, variables and coating
History of evaporative pattern casting (EPC) processEvaporative pattern casting (EPC) Process is a sand molding process that makes use of evaporative patterns produced industrially by steam molding or machined out from a block of expandable polystyrene foam (EPS) [1,2]. The pattern is buried in the sand mold and the melted casting material is poured into the mold without removing pattern, unlike the traditional sand casting method that makes use of wooden, plastic and metallic pattern which is removed from the mold before molten metal is advanced.It was in 1956 that Shroyer made a documentation of his work on EPC where green sand was used as the molding material [3]. The author machined a shape from expanded polystyrene (EPS) and supported it inside a flask with bounded sand. Another researcher called Flemmings © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.came up in 1964 to use unbounded silica grains for the process [1]. Foundry men later came to differentiate between the two; calling the first the full mold and the second the lost foam processes. The subtle difference only lied in the use of bounded (green) sand and loose sand.The process became known to foundry men in 1958 and many trade names have been formed to describe it [3]. They include styrecast, replicast, full mold, lost foam and evaporative process. A distinguishing feature of this type of sand process is that an evaporative pattern made of polystyrene foam is used [4]. It is coated with a coating developed from a refractory material usually silica or zircon sand before being buried in the mold. It is not removed from the mold once it is buried.After 1964, some works have been done by researchers to understand the variables that affect the process. Some works in the automotive industry have also been done. General motors have produced a number of automotive components with the method. This started in the year 1980 and they are still in the use of the p...