Since its inception in the 1950s, China's precision casting industry has achieved breakthroughs in many "neck-stuck" technologies in the fields of aviation, energy, and national defense after decades of technological accumulation and innovation. For example, the largest high-temperature alloy precision casting casing casting in China developed by Guizhou Anji Precision Casting Company of AVIC fills the gap in the core components of commercial aircraft engines, and its high-temperature resistance reaches the international leading level2. In addition, Chengdu Aerospace Company has overcome the problem of single-crystal hollow blades through vacuum smelting technology, and the product qualification rate is benchmarked against European and American standards, marking that my country has gotten rid of its dependence on imports for key components of aviation engines.

 

In the field of energy, the successful development of the high-temperature turbine blades of the first domestically produced F-class 50MW heavy-duty gas turbine adopts a hollow cooling structure design, which enables the blades to operate stably at a high temperature of 1327℃, pushing China to become the fifth country in the world with the ability to manufacture heavy-duty gas turbines. Yuchai Group has solved the process bottleneck of high-grade complex castings and improved the core competitiveness of domestic engines through the mass production of cylinder heads made of vermicular iron RuT450.

 

Industry leaders such as Shenyang Foundry Research Institute have achieved breakthroughs in ultra-low temperature casting technology for titanium alloys. The vacuum suspension melting technology developed by them provides high-purity titanium alloy materials for the Long March series rocket engines, helping China's aerospace industry enter a new stage of independent control. According to statistics, China's casting output will reach 51.9 million tons in 2023, accounting for 48% of the global total, but high-end castings still rely on imports, and there is an urgent need for industrial upgrading.

 

In the future, precision casting will focus on intelligent and green transformation. For example, 3D printing sand mold technology has shortened the mold manufacturing cycle by 60% and promoted the integrated molding of complex castings9. At the same time, the industry needs to cope with environmental pressure, reduce energy consumption through technologies such as waste sand regeneration and waste gas treatment, and keep pace with international advanced levels (for example, Germany's casting energy consumption is only 1/2 of China's).