日本铸铁件的产量从1950年的大约70万吨增加到1970年的450万吨。此后,由于材料质量的改善,铸件变得薄而轻,因而铸件总吨数并没有增加很多。雇员不足30人的小型铸造厂,约占日本铸造厂数的60％。在日本,有许多熔化率约为2～5吨/小时的小冲天炉.目前,铸铁总产量的一半左右是由冲天炉熔炼的,有三分之一是由感应电炉熔炼的。 The output of cast iron in Japan increased from about 700,000 tons in 1950 to 4.5 million tons in 1970. Since then, due to the improvement of the quality of the material, the castings became thin and light, so the total tonnage of castings did not increase much. Small foundries with less than 30 employees account for about 60% of Japanese foundries. In Japan, there are many small cupola furnaces with a melting rate of about 2 to 5 tons / hour. Currently, about half of the total cast iron is smelted by a cupola furnace and about one-third is melted by an induction furnace.