The main difference is that they have different properties, characteristics and applications, as follows:

1) Different properties

1. Castings

Castings are metal shaped objects obtained by various casting methods. That is, the smelted liquid metal is poured into a pre-prepared mold by pouring, injection, inhalation or other casting methods. After cooling, it is polished and other subsequent processing methods. , the resulting object with a certain shape, size and performance.
2. Forgings

Forgings refer to workpieces or blanks obtained by forging and deforming metal blanks. By applying pressure to a metal blank to cause plastic deformation, its mechanical properties can be changed.

2) Different characteristics

1. Castings

① Can produce blanks with complex inner cavities and shapes. Such as various boxes, machine tool beds, cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, etc.

② The process has great flexibility and wide adaptability. The size of liquid molded parts is almost unlimited, their weight can range from a few grams to hundreds of tons, and their wall thickness can range from 0.5mm to about 1m.

③ The cost of liquid molded parts is lower. Liquid molding can directly utilize waste machine parts and chips, and the equipment cost is low. At the same time, the processing allowance of liquid molded parts is small, saving metal.

2. Forgings

① Large weight range. Forgings range from a few grams to hundreds of tons.

② Higher quality than castings. Forgings have better mechanical properties than castings and can withstand large impact forces and other heavy loads.

③ Heaviest and lightest. On the premise of ensuring design strength, forgings are lighter than castings, which reduces the weight of the machine itself, which is of great significance to transportation vehicles, aircraft, vehicles and space aerospace equipment.

④ Save raw materials. Precision forged forgings can not only save more raw materials, but also save more machining hours.

⑤ High productivity. For example, using two hot forging presses to forge radial thrust bearings can replace 30 automatic cutting machine tools. When using an upsetting automatic machine to produce M24 nuts, the productivity of a six-axis automatic lathe is 17.5 times higher.

3) Different applications

1. Castings

Application areas: coins, sacrificial vessels, weapons, tools, etc.

2. Forgings

Application fields: agricultural machinery, thermal power stations, etc.