For customers in need of simple to complex parts created from a wide variety of metals, investment casting processes provide unique advantages. Please contact Impro’s experts to provide investment casting solutions.

This video is created by 3D animation to illustrate the critical steps of the investment casting process.

Investment casting starts with tooling design and manufacturing. Tooling is required to make the wax pattern, a replica of the part that will be cast in metal, and cores (water-soluble or ceramic) for creating internal features of the casting. The wax pattern production step involves making wax patterns that are used to produce ceramic shell molds. To create the patterns, injection molding techniques are used. To minimize unit costs, multiple wax patterns are joined together in a “tree” that feeds them with metal. The next step in the investment casting process is to take the wax pattern tree and dip it or surround it with a ceramic slurry. The slurry has binders that allow the ceramic to harden as an even coating is obtained. The ceramic shells harden as then the wax is removed by being melted or burnt out. The ceramic molds become preheated. Then the pouring process begins with the molten metal entering the ceramic pattern. The molds are preheated to eliminate cold spots that may cause the molten metal to cool unevenly while it fills into all the crevices and intricate parts of the mold. Once the pouring is complete, the metal is allowed to cool as the part is finished casting.

To recap, the process to make an investment casting before secondary machining involves five critical steps:
• Tooling Design and Manufacturing
• Wax Pattern Production
• Ceramic Shell Making
• Melting and Pouring
• Cutting and Clean

To learn more about the investment casting process or want to discuss your next investment casting project, please contact us.

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