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Copper Cast

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

Investment Castings

Investment Casting – 10 Stages of Manufacture

The Lost Wax Investment Castings Process can be used for making Precision Investment Castings in Iron, Steel, Copper or Aluminium Alloys and Aluminium.

The process is almost Identical for each Metal Specification but can vary depending on various requirements in the Investment Casting Industry.

The main benefits are a Precision Investment Casting with closer dimensional tolerances than Sand Casting techniques and exact re-peatability

1) Construct an Aluminium Die to allow the manufacture of Waxes

2) Assemble the waxes onto a Runner or Downsprue

3) Dip the assembly into a Ceramic Slurry

4) Sprinkle ( by various methods ) grains of a Refractory Material onto the assembly. Repeat 3 & 4 enough times until you have a thickness of shell to hold the molten metal.

5) Completely dry the assembly prior to inverting it and placing into a Steam Autoclave to remove the wax.

6) Place the now hollow assembly or Mould into a Firing Oven to both cure the ceramic and to preheat the mould.

7) Fill the mould with molten Steel, Iron, Copper Alloy or Aluminium.

8) Vibrate the Castings inside the assembly to break down the ceramic.

9) Cut the castings off the assembly, grind where required.

10)Always inspect the castings prior to despatch.

Engineers or Buyers should be aware that there are many technical considerations to be added to these 10 stages. For example the contraction of Iron, Steel, Copper Alloys and Aluminium are different and these factors will have to be considered when making the Tool or Die.

Investment Castings are available at Jade Trading

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