The Process
Investment Casting: From Wax To Metal
Investment casting at Superqualicast offers a reliable, sophisticated, and valuable technique in modern manufacturing for making complex metal components with extraordinary accuracy and consistency.
The Investment Casting Process At SQC.
The step-by-step process of investment casting at SQC involves several vital stages. Each process backs the final product's quality. With this fine process,we make high-quality metal parts across various industries, from aerospace to defense devices. The steps are as follows:
- Wax pattern creation through injection molding.
- Assembly of patterns into clusters.
- Building up ceramic shells through repeated dipping.
- Melting out the wax to create hollow molds.
- Pouring carefully prepared molten metal.
- Cooling and solidification.
- Removal of ceramic shell.
- Finishing processes that include cutting, heat treatment, and quality testing.
Key Advantages of the IC process.
The investment casting method offers numerous benefits for manufacturers:
- Ability to create complex and detailed designs.
- Wide range of compatible alloys.
- Excellent surface finish, often reducing the need for secondary operations.
- High dimensional accuracy and repeatability.
- Potential for thin-walled, lightweight components.
- Less cost for multiple production runs due to reusable molds.
- Minimal material waste compared to subtractive manufacturing methods.
Let our experienced team help turn your designs into successful realities - reach out today for a quote and see how we can support your prototyping needs.
Basic steps
Tool Design / Build
Designing the tool as per the component’s geometry and quantity requirements considering various factors like shrinkage properties of wax, metal and it’s design.
Wax injection
Firstly, the wax replica of the required casting is produced with the help of injection molding. Such wax replicas are known as patterns.
Assembly
Secondly, the wax pattern is attached to a sprue (central wax stick) for forming an assembly or casting cluster.
Shell building
Thirdly, a shell is made by dipping the assembly inside a container comprising of liquid ceramic slurry followed by putting it into a bed comprising of very fine sand approximately up to at least 8 layers can be applied in such a manner.
Dewax
Fourthly, the wax is immediately melted out the moment the ceramic is dried out, forming a negative impact of the assembly inside the shell.
Chemical Analysis
Small sample is taken from the molten metal and it is quickly solidified by the help of quenching it in the water. It is then tested in Spectrometer to know it’s chemical properties.
Liquid Metal Pouring
In case of the conventional process, molten metal is filled in the shell via gravity pouring. When the metal cools down, the pouring cup, sprue, gates and parts turn into one solid casting.
Knockout
When the metal gets cooled and solidified, next the ceramic shells are broken with the help of water blasting or vibration.
Cut-off
The parts are traditionally cut away and separated from the main sprue with the help of a friction saw of high speed.
Heat Treatment
Heat treatment is a controlled process used to alter the microstructure of metals such as stainless steel, carbon steel and alloy steels to impart properties which benefit the working life of a component, for example increased surface hardness, temperature resistance, ductility and strength.
Mechanical Analysis
Tensile Strength, Yield Stress, Elongation and Reduction of area are important parameters that can be achieved by testing the Tensile Test bars in Universal Testing Machine.
Finished Castings
The metal castings that are identical to that of the original one is finally complete post minor finishing operations.
Various Tests
Various Destructive and Non-Destructive Tests like Bend Test, Impact Test, IGC test, Radiography Test, Liquid Penetrant Test, Magnetic Particle Examination, Ultrasonic Tests, Eddy Current Tests, Microscopic Examination.