Right gents im sick and tired at people saying casting are full of inclusions and defects, We currently make castings that are used in aerospace out of a357. the level of defect allowed under x-ray is nothing greater than level 1. In addition we also make Aluminium swingarms for both trail bikes and road bikes. These are one piece cast products that have bettered thier rival forged component in terms of cyclic fatigue. In additon we are producing a singel side swing arm which is also cast.
My moral is we are still beig driven by two things, Installed fear by forging comapnies who think they will lose out in business and the old school who still see castings as something done in a dirty old place and being a dark art. The casting technology has come a long way and most foundries now have degassing units, spectros, gas analysers, metal cleanliness, x-ray both real time and film. Cad/cam, and solidifcation software.
There was a good article written by boeing CEO that stated he wanted all his people to look at the savings that casting could make over forgings. One example is the wing rib in the new airbus, it used to be forged out of 7 parts and then had the problem of fitting alignment and such. this is now cast. In addition the new audi doo of the A2 is cast as one piece, albeit by thixoforming.