Ok you manufacturing Guru's and forum physicists,  I had an idea recently and wanted to know if it was any good or completely nuts.

I was thinking of traditional casting technology and its faults...

My idea is to fill a form with ingots of material,  and then arc an electrical current through the material. The electrical current would basically "weld" the material into the desired shape. This should create a very consistant and desireable grain structure in the metal.

Of course the material would have to be rapidly cooled, but that is a non-issue the process would have to be done in a vaccum to keep the part from oxdizing as it stabilized (And vaccums are by definiton very cold).

By my estimation this process could be nearly as cheap as casting, and make parts nearly as strong as forged.

Of course, I may be wrong... does anyone here have an opinion?

YOUR WRONG! VERY VERY WRONG!
*grabs papers and runs like all hell to patent office*

Actually, I have no Idea if it would work.
Do you mean like pouring metal into a mold, then electrolysis?
That would just coat the mould with metal, and make the whole thing one solid.

Actually, pouring granular metal (the finer the better) into a mold (you'd probably need a hgh temperature ceramic) and arcing current through it.

It might work, but you will still end-up with a csat part. As far as being a cheaper casting method? Very doubtful.

Centrifugal casting will be the best, [red]IF[/red] you want a cast part.

IMHO, it might be cheaper to get a forged part if you are looking for strength and/or quality.

Granted, but the grain structure "should" be more evenly distributed.

It might be worthwhile if it can produce a part stronger then cast and cheaper then forged.

I seriously doubt that the grain structure would be more evenly "distributed" UNLESS you performed the process in the presence of a large, very powerful electromagnet. But then again, it would still be a cast piece and the pain of doing what you are trying to do is not worth it.

Oh well, just sounding out the idea. I'm no metallurgist so I was sorta expecting to be wrong.