General Casting Questions
Here are some general casting questions that we at Shelmet Precision Casting are often asked by our customers.
Isn’t the tooling for investment casting fairly expensive?
It used to be. However, the advent of modern technology has drastically reduced the cost of design and fabrication. By using CAD/CAM and other computer-aided technologies, investment casting has become much more cost effective. Top
What is the process of investment casting?
The investment casting process, also called "lost-wax casting" describes a metal-casting process that uses a wax model in the shape of the required casting to create a mold. The wax form is then dipped several times into a ceramic slurry, and then coated with a fine sand. Once this has dried and hardened, the wax is melted leaving a cavity within the ceramic and sand mold. The molten metal is then poured into the hollow cavity. Top
How long will the investment casting process take?
Lead times for investment casting usually run six to eight weeks. Naturally, we try to accommodate our customer's requirements. Our focus is understanding and responding to your specific time-line needs. Top
What kind of surface finish does investment casting produce?
Investment casting produces an excellent matte surface finish, similar to a Formica tabletop. Additionally, there are a wide variety of finishing services available; such as, plating, polishing, heat treating, machining, coating and anodizing. Top
What are some of the benefits of investment casting?
There are several unique benefits offered by the investment casting process, including: design flexibility, reduced secondary machining and consistency.
- Design Flexibility: The designer has a greater degree of design flexibility and freedom with the investment casting process due to the infinite variety of alloys and the choice of internal and external shapes.
- Reduced Machining:
There is little to no post-process machining due to the fact that investment castings are produced at near-net size. This results in savings of both time and money.
- Consistency:
Consistency in product results is another feature of the investment casting process. From part to part and batch to batch the results are the same.
The investment casting process is superior to any other process for more than the above-listed reasons. Excellent surface finishes and close tolerances provide additional customer value.
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