FlowMarket
Where to source foundry services: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the casting you need — alloy, part weight and size, annual quantity, tolerances, machining and certifications — and the AI agent matches you with verified iron, steel and non-ferrous foundries across sand, die, investment and gravity casting, then requests quotes, tooling cost and lead times from every match at once. Getting matched is free for buyers.
Sourcing foundry services
A foundry melts metal and pours it into a mould — but "foundry" covers an enormous range of businesses. Some pour thirty-tonne iron machine beds; others make gram-scale stainless components to aerospace standards. The one that fits your part depends on alloy, casting weight, annual volume and the tolerances you need.
That is why this page exists as a starting point rather than a process page. If you already know you need die casting or investment casting, go straight there. If you know only what the part has to do, describe it here and let the agent work out which casting route — and which foundries — actually fit.
Choosing a casting route
By volume and tooling budget
Sand casting has the cheapest tooling and suits a handful to a few thousand parts a year. Die casting has expensive tooling but the lowest unit cost, earning its place in the tens of thousands. Investment casting sits between the two, justified by geometry and alloy rather than volume alone.
By size and weight
Very large or heavy castings — machine bases, housings, pump bodies — are effectively sand casting only. Small, detailed parts in the gram-to-kilogram range open up die and investment casting, where surface finish and tolerances are far better.
By alloy
- Grey & ductile iron — sand casting; machine structures, housings, hubs, pressure parts.
- Cast steel — sand or investment casting; high-strength structural components.
- Aluminium — die, gravity or sand casting depending on volume and wall thickness.
- Zinc — die casting; small precision parts with fine detail.
- Bronze & brass — sand or centrifugal casting; bearings, marine and valve components.
- Superalloys & titanium — investment casting; aerospace and high-temperature parts.
What to specify when sourcing castings
Whichever route you end up on, foundries need the same core facts:
- Alloy & standard — the material grade, or the properties it has to meet.
- Casting weight & envelope — raw weight and overall dimensions.
- Annual quantity — the single biggest factor in choosing process and tooling.
- Tooling — whether a pattern or die exists, who owns it, and who pays for a new one.
- Tolerances & machining — casting tolerance class, machined faces and stock allowance.
- Testing — material certificates, spectral analysis, X-ray, pressure or leak testing.
- Finishing — shot blasting, painting, powder coating, plating or impregnation.
- Certifications — ISO 9001, IATF 16949, PED, or customer-specific approvals.
Why buyers use FlowMarket for casting
Casting is one of the hardest categories to search, because the deciding factors — melt capacity, maximum pour weight, which alloys are actually in the furnace this month, whether machining is in-house — are rarely published. Describing the part instead of a process lets the agent rank foundries by real capability, and because the same brief goes to every match at once, tooling cost and unit price come back side by side instead of in a dozen separate email threads.