At around 1700 ~ 1000 BC, China had entered the heyday of bronze casting and  had reached a high level in casting technology. Casting is a process where a solid metal is melted into a liquid and poured into a specific shape of a mold to be solidified. Cast metal usually refer to copper, iron, aluminum, tin, lead and other metal. The ordinary casting materials are raw sand, clay, water glass, resin and other auxiliary materials. The casting types of special casting include investment casting, lost mold casting, metal mold casting, ceramic mold casting, etc. (the original sand includes: quartz sand, magnesia sand, zirconium sand, chromite sand, magnesium olivine sand, blue crystal sand, graphite sand, iron sand, etc.)

Fold in the early casting period

The Simuwu Square Cauldron of the Shang Dynasty, The Zeng HouYizun Plate of The Warring States Period, and The Transparent Mirror of The Western Han Dynasty are all representative products of the ancient china casting industry. Most of the early castings were tools  used in agriculture, religion, life, etc. At that time, the casting process was developed in parallel with the pottery process and was greatly influenced by pottery.

Fold development

In around 513 BC, China cast the first cast-iron tripod in written records in the world, weighing about 270 kg. Cast iron was also produced in Europe around the 8th century. The appearance of cast iron extended the application range of castings. For example, in the 15th to 17th century, Germany, France and other countries have laid a lot of iron pipes to provide drinking water to the residents. After the industrial revolution in the 18th century, the rise of steam engine, textile machine, railway and other industries,pushing casting industry into a new era for the service of large industry. At the same time, casting technology began to have a great development.