Video narration
How can liquid metal become a precise part? An ice cube tray gives the clue: liquid fills a shaped space, then hardens into it. Casting uses that idea at high temperature. Engineers make a mold with the component's cavity, often from sand or metal. Steel, iron, or aluminum is heated until molten. Here's the key: it isn't carved into final shape. Molten metal takes that shape because the mold defines the space it fills. It enters through a channel called a sprue. Gravity, or sometimes pressure, drives it through the mold and into its cavities. Then cooling solidifies the metal, locking it into the mold's form. Afterward, the mold is opened or broken away; excess material is removed, and the casting may be machined, heat-treated, and inspected. So the answer is: pour molten metal into a shaped mold, cool it, remove it, and finish the part.