Investment Casting

Investment Casting Services & Parts Suppliers – China Lost Wax Investment Casting Manufacturers

If shape complexity and surface finish of your parts are your concern, investment casting is the place to go. In order to meet the mass production requirements of some customers and reduce costs, we cooperate with suppliers to assist your project. Minhe investment casting services can reduce the machining time and cost of CNC machined parts, because we can quickly mass-produce a large number of prototypes and modify the appearance through CNC technology to deliver the final required parts. Whether you are looking for an investment casting manufacturer to cast stainless steel, carbon steel, aluminum or brass, expert technicians will perform the investment casting process in a variety of metals and are able to provide intricate detail, smooth surface finish and high The economical way is defined for the customer. Our investment castings are widely used in energy, automotive, natural gas, oil, food and more. ISO 9001 certification and multi-stage quality inspection implementation will ensure the quality and performance of the lost wax casting products to be delivered.

Why choose Minhe precision casting?

• Close design reviews for tolerances, undercuts and more detail to improve yield and reduce costs.
• Advanced equipment and rich experience will work with less budget and time if CNC service is required.
• From concept to prototype to final product, our experts will help you with speed and reliability.
• Metal finishing, quality assurance testing and more can be provided to bring castings to specification.
• A full-service investment foundry and a high degree of automation reduce time at every step, ensuring the shortest possible lead times.

Materials Used in Lost Wax Casting – Types of Investment Castings

• Stainless steel precision castings: 410, 416, 420, 303, 304, 304L, 316, 316L, 17-4PH, etc.
• Alloy steel precision castings: 1045, 1050, 4130, 4140, etc.
• Copper alloy precision castings: CDA 872, CDA 875, CDA 903, etc.
• Aluminum precision casting: 356

What is investment casting?

Investment casting, also known as lost wax casting, is one of the oldest known metal forming techniques. Investment casting gets its name because the process involves covering a wax pattern with a refractory material to form a mold, and pouring the molten material into the mold. The shape of the mold cavity is exactly the same as the shape of the desired product. Materials commonly used in investment casting include stainless steel, carbon steel, aluminum, and brass. Investment casting has a history of nearly 5,000 years. It was first formed with beeswax, and later more advanced waxes were used to make wax patterns. Most of the wax used in lost wax casting can be recycled. Investment casting is a popular manufacturing method due to its ability to produce parts with high precision, repeatability and integrity using a variety of metals and alloys.

How does investment casting work? – Investment casting process

Investment casting (lost wax casting) is the process of using wax to make a mold for the part to be cast, and then coating the wax pattern with mud, called a clay mold. After the clay mold is dry, the inner wax mold is heated and melted. After the wax mold is melted, the clay mold is taken out and baked into a ceramic mold. Generally, the gate system is left when making the clay mold, and then the molten metal is poured into the mold. Cool until the part solidifies to make the desired part.

Investment Casting Process Steps

1. Wax is injected into a permanent mold with the same details as the casting.
2. Assemble multiple wax components to form gate and runner systems.
3. The entire wax group is dipped in a refractory material such as ceramic slurry so that it is completely covered with stucco to form a ceramic shell that is built around the tree component by repeatedly dipping the pattern into the slurry.
4. Heat the entire assembly to melt the wax.
5. After removing residual wax pattern and gate material, ceramic molds retain a cavity in the shape of the part.
6. Preheat the metal and pour the molten metal into the mold.
7. After the casting has cooled, the part is removed from the mold.
8. Post-processing and machining to the required specifications.
9. Size and quality inspection and other tests before shipment.

Advantages of investment casting

• Investment casting can provide complex configurations of various alloys, such as complex channels and profiles with a tight tolerance. Some of these are difficult to do with machine tools.
• Although most investment castings are relatively small in size, some investment casting companies with advanced machinery and expertise are capable of making castings weighing over 1000 lbs.
• With lost wax casting, multiple parts can be combined into one investment casting at a time, which makes it a good alternative to welding. This also provides higher dimensional accuracy and lower complexity.
• The high integrity of investment castings allows them to serve a variety of applications over the long term, including chemical, medical, defense, automotive, and more.
• The ceramic shell is made of high temperature resistant special binder and refractory paint made of refractory material, which is coated on the wax model. The inner surface of the cavity that is in direct contact with the molten metal is smooth. Therefore, the surface finish of investment castings is higher than that of ordinary castings.
• Good dimensional accuracy and surface finish reduce the need for post-processing work. Only a little machining allowance is left on parts with high requirements. Investment casting can save a lot of equipment costs and shorten the entire processing time.