Investment casting

Investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, is a manufacturing process used to produce complex and intricate metal parts. It is one of the oldest known casting methods and is widely used in various industries, including aerospace, automotive, jewelry, and art.

Here’s an overview of the investment casting process:

1. Pattern Creation: The process begins with the creation of a pattern, which is a replica of the desired final product. The pattern can be made from various materials such as wax, plastic, or even metal.

2. Pattern Assembly: Multiple patterns are attached to a central wax sprue to form a cluster. Additional wax rods, called gates and risers, are also attached to provide channels for the molten metal and allow gases to escape during the casting process.

3. Investment (Mold) Making: The pattern cluster is coated with a ceramic material called investment. This involves dipping the cluster into a ceramic slurry and then coating it with a fine ceramic powder. This process is repeated multiple times to build a thick ceramic shell around the pattern.

4. Dewaxing: Once the ceramic shell is dry and hardened, the entire assembly is heated in a furnace. The heat melts and removes the wax from the ceramic shell, leaving behind a hollow mold.

5. Preheating: The ceramic shell is preheated to remove any remaining moisture and improve the casting quality.

6. Casting: The preheated ceramic shell is placed in a casting flask, and molten metal is poured into the mold through the sprue. The metal fills the cavities previously occupied by the wax patterns.

7. Solidification: The molten metal cools and solidifies within the ceramic mold, taking the shape of the desired part.

8. Shell Removal: After the metal has solidified, the ceramic shell is broken or chemically dissolved to reveal the cast metal part.

9. Finishing: The cast part undergoes various post-processing operations such as grinding, sandblasting, machining, polishing, and heat treatment to achieve the desired final specifications and surface finish.

Investment casting offers several advantages, including the ability to create complex shapes with intricate details, excellent surface finish, and tight tolerances. It allows for the production of parts with a wide range of sizes, from a few grams to several hundred kilograms. This process is particularly well-suited for manufacturing parts that would be difficult or costly to produce using traditional machining techniques.

However, investment casting also has some limitations, including higher production costs compared to other casting methods, longer lead times due to the complex process, and limitations on the size of parts that can be cast.

Overall, investment casting is a versatile and widely used process for producing high-quality metal parts with complex geometries, making it a valuable manufacturing technique in various industries.

https://investmentcastings.in/index.html

We manufacture investment castings in various grades of Carbon steels, Stainless steels & Copper alloys including Nickel Silvers. The parts we cast are with excellent surfaces finish, with good aesthetics & close tolerances. 

40, Machhe Industrial Area,
Machhe, Belagavi,

MO: 9448147807

Email:[email protected]