Overview | Capacities | Is This Process For You? | Materials | Typical Components | Process Demo
Overview
Description
This process uses wax patterns assembled in tree forms on a runner. The completed assembly is coated with a ceramic slurry, allowed to dry and then heated to melt out the wax leaving a ceramic mould into which the molten alloy is poured.
Advantages
There are many advantages to using the investment casting process. Designers like to specify investment castings because of the design flexibility it gives them and the close dimensional tolerances, which the process makes available. In addition, alloys which are often difficult or impossible to machine can be investment cast with a high degree of consistency and repeatability.
Cost Reduction
Substantial savings are a powerful inducement for any casting buyer to switch to investment castings from other manufacturing methods. This is particularly true where components are purchased from outside vendors since it is easy to compare their cost for a component using an investment casting as the raw material against the cost of the previous method. Reductions in cost of 50% or more are not unusual.
Design Flexibility
Almost any shape, simple or complex, can be investment cast. Complex assemblies can be cast as a unit. Holes, slots, bevels, serrations, thin sections, knife edges and other configurations can be produced in investment castings.
Close Dimensional Tolerances
Close dimensional tolerances of +/- .005 inch per inch are possible with investment castings. Many parts can be used "as cast" with no additional machining due to superior control of dimensions, tolerances and surface texture compared to other casting methods.