Resin Shell Casting Overview
The steel or aluminum pattern and runner are mounted on a flat steel plate, which is heated to a temperature that will cure the sand/resin mixture. The shell is stripped off and clamped against a flat or similarly moulded shell to form the mould cavity for the molten alloy, thus reproducing the pattern. For hollow components separately moulded cores are placed between the two halves of the mould before closing.
Complex moulds with integrated cores can be produced by the resin shell moulding process, allowing the production of parts with complex geometries. The resin shell process features comparatively good near-net-shape accuracies and good surface quality. Resin coated zircon sand is poured on to a heated pattern plate; the resin is cured and one half of a mould is thus formed. Two halves of a mould are then bonded together, ready for casting.