The first step to keeping your employees safe is to make sure they use the proper PPE. This means using masks and gloves, as well as safety shoes and glasses. If your facility does not have PPE, consider purchasing a set of basic respiratory protective gear for each employee who works with die casting.

Generally, everyone should wear safety gear when fumes or other hazardous materials are produced during the die casting process. You may also consider setting up a dedicated area for employees to change into protective gear before entering any areas where they may be exposed, such as areas with high sulfuric acid concentrations.

In addition to wearing gloves and masks, there are many safety measures that should be taken during the die casting process. These measures include the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), proper work practices, and the use of appropriate PPE for certain advanced tasks in order to avoid any serious accidents.

The next step to keeping your employees safe is to make sure they use the proper PPE when starting any complex task. This means using masks and gloves, as well as safety shoes and glasses. If your facility does not have PPE, consider purchasing PPE and a set of basic respiratory protective gear for each employee who works with die casting.

Wearing protective gear is the primary safety factor for any operator, but secondary factors also play an important role in the interests of the company and employees.

Let's start with the common tools used on a small scale.

● Protective clothing and gear.

● IR/UV hazards.

● Safe work area.

● Casting furnace, usually gas or electric.

● Fuel or power source for the furnace.

● Crucible or crucible (container) placed in the furnace to hold the molten metal.

● Tools to transfer/remove/carry the container from the furnace to the mold.

● Cavity mold or ingot mold.

● Dross or scrap container.

Protective clothing and gear.

Heat protection requires a safe working distance and shielding from heat, spills, and splashes. You must protect from head to toe with these common safety items and more...safety glasses or face shield with IR/UV goggles, heat/flame resistant clothing, welding or other high temperature gloves, leather work boots or better. Remember that a single drop of molten metal can cause severe pain or injury, and wearing protective clothing to prevent metal splashes or spills is a precautionary procedure. Beyond that, safety gear is needed, such as the proper tools for handling hot items and fire protection equipment to carry with you, such as a rated fire extinguisher. Keep in mind that water and molten metal can be dangerously explosive and cause violent splatter, so stay away from water and away from molten metal.

IR/UV Hazards.

The most common types of radiation encountered in industry are infrared radiation (IR) or heat, ultraviolet radiation (UV), and bright visible light. Fires emit UV and IR radiation in varying degrees at varying temperatures. The primary source of IR in industry is molten materials, particularly glass and metal. Although foundry work generally has limited exposure to IR and UV in both time and intensity compared to glassblowing or welding, exposure should be minimized whenever possible with proper shielding. The AOA (American Optometric Association) UV protection guidelines recommend that sunglasses provide at least 99% protection from the sun's UV rays (wavelengths below 400 nm). Gray, green, and brown polycarbonate prescription sun lenses provide this level of protection. Gray, green, and brown CR-39 plastic sun lenses may require UV protection dyes to achieve 99% UV protection. Gray glass prescription sun lenses generally do not meet this recommendation.

Safe Work Areas.

Your work area must be appropriate for the type/size of furnace you are using and the type of casting you are doing. Also, there must be proper ventilation to exhaust the waste heat and fumes generated by the burning materials in the fuel and metal, including metal vapors, all of which can be toxic. Small furnaces designed for labs or jewelry work are common indoor furnaces, but still require remediation for heat and fume generation. Larger furnaces with larger furnaces or crucibles and greater melting capacity may need to be used only outdoors, or in very specific indoor environments where the high heat and fumes generated can be safely exhausted and will not accumulate, causing the risk of fire, explosion, or toxic unsafe breathing conditions. This may seem like common sense, but every year someone somewhere burns their holiday turkey in the wrong way or in the wrong place, yet many large roasters are designed with safe use in restaurants in mind.

Casting Furnaces

Casting furnaces come in many styles and types, with the basic purpose of achieving the proper temperature required to melt the metal being cast. The fuel source is usually electricity or propane gas, but can also be coal, electric arc, forced air natural gas, and oil, among others. Foundry furnace design and fuel source are key to effectively handling the temperatures required for the metal's melting point and the size of the container volume. For example, lead melts at 621 degrees Fahrenheit, aluminum melts at 1,218 degrees Fahrenheit, gold melts at 1,946 degrees Fahrenheit, copper melts at 1,981 degrees Fahrenheit, and cast iron melts at 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Lead and iron vary greatly in terms of degrees, BTUs, time, fuel, and furnace sanity to handle the situation. This is also why your safe work area must be matched to the job at hand and be able to handle large spills that may occur in the furnace or mid-mold pour due to accident or container failure. Some people take a small indoor lab or hobby furnace for granted, but regret not planning ahead for precautions in case of an accidental release of metal in the 2,000-degree range right in front of them. So always consider containment and isolation of high temperatures. In addition, you need ample power or fuel to complete the melt/pour without interruption for the time required. By matching the appropriate furnace to the metal, volume, fuel, time, cost ratio, working environment, you can achieve the results you want in a safe, cost-effective manner and with good results. Furnace

The fuel or power source.

Fuels by their very nature are powerful and can be dangerous. Care must be taken in handling each raw material, as well as the exhaust of high temperature byproducts and toxic fumes and/or debris/metal vapors produced by the fuel. There must be adequate ventilation to properly and safely direct and dissipate all of this. Even when using electricity as a fuel, extreme caution must be used to handle high electrical loads on circuits and wires for extended periods of time to avoid other safety issues upstream of the furnace from overheated wires, electrical fires, or circuit burnouts during casting operations. Steam and liquid fuels require extra care to prevent potentially explosive leaks by leak testing before lighting the flame and then venting to dissipate any unknown fumes away from the heat source and flame. Furnace

Or Crucible.

Containers/melting/pouring vessels for metals should be sized appropriately for the job at hand and high enough quality to ensure reasonable containment of molten metals, from solid to liquid to pouring, but understand that the vessel can fail at any time due to leaks or catastrophic rupture. The fact is that the vessels are subjected to extreme temperature ranges that can weaken their molecular structure over time, or/and metal containers can be attacked by the solvent action of the molten metal, or soften at higher temperatures leading to perforation, or all containers are subject to thermal shock cracking. The bottom line is to get the highest quality affordable containers, but consider all melting containers as temporary limited life replaceable tools for the project, they can also be used safely if plans are made to prevent these containers from failing with spill capture (sand, dirt, containers, etc.) and protective clothing and gear. Always use proper container handling tools to lift, move, pour these containers, and handle gently to reduce shock, as some containers are fragile and others soften with heat. Also, always inspect the container for structural integrity, holes, cracks, etc. before using it. If safe usability is in question, replace it with a safer container.

Feeding/Removal/Carrying Tools.

Some foundries use a variety of hand tools, each with a specific purpose and some with multiple purposes. The standard is to lift the container in/out of the furnace, another tool for carrying and dumping the container, or one tool that does both by matching the container/tool perfectly. When changing containers, you may need to match the tools to accommodate their new shape, size, and weight. In addition, you will need metal tongs to pick up pieces of metal to put into the melting container or move hot objects, another tool to stir the metal, and another tool to skim the slag and remove it from the container, placing the scum in its container. Another valuable and inexpensive tool is an infrared thermometer, which can quickly check if something is hot at a distance before touching it.

Cavity or Ingot Mold

This can be a sand-containing mold of many sizes and shapes with a cavity inside to pour the metal, or an open-surface metal tray or ingot mold to pour the metal into to make a bar or ingot shape. The mold process can also include material displacement processes called lost wax and lost wax processes. In the lost foam casting process, the desired final shape is a foam that is encased in sand that is replaced by molten metal after the sand burns out, whereas in the lost wax casting process, the desired final shape is encased in wax that is then melted by low heat and then leaves the cavity. The normal sand-only casting process is done by pounding the sand/clay mixture, which sticks together when the object is squeezed like a snowball, taking on its reverse pattern. When the object is removed from the sand, the voids will be filled with liquid metal, which then cools and hardens again.

Scum or scrap container.

In the process of melting metal, especially scrap metal, various impurities are released, forming solid lumps that will begin to float on the molten metal. The liquid slag is scooped or skimmed off the top of the metal and poured out of the tool into a collection container for later disposal or recycling. Remember that this scum is the temperature of the molten metal and it may explode, evaporating the water in the concrete, so do not knock scum from the tool onto the concrete floor. Allow this hot material to cool safely using a suitable bucket, pallet or other secure collection container.