Investment casting is effective at producing complex and detailed parts that other methods cannot. There are no joints or flash lines because the part is made as one whole piece. Read More…
Leading Manufacturers
Ferralloy Inc.
Cleveland, OH | 440-250-1900For over 30 years, we have provided metal forged products for a wide variety of industries, including the aerospace, military, food service, medical, and automotive industries. Our customers know they can trust our forgings for quality and affordability. We will never try to make you pay more than you should for our products. Contact us by phone or email to find out more!
Rimer Enterprises, Inc.
Waterville, OH | 419-878-8156Since 1944 we have been driven to remain a cut above the competition in investment castings and everything we do. We have our own tooling shop filled with state-of-the-art testing machines. We ensure perfect results every time. It is our goal to establish lifelong relationships with our customers that benefit us both. Contact us for more info today!
Craft Pattern & Mold, Inc.
Montrose, MN | 763-675-3169Established in 1983, Craft Pattern & Mold's foundry uses investment casting, sand casting, rubber plaster casting and spin casting to produce high-quality prototypes or do short-run production. For our customers' castings, we use aluminum, ductile iron, gray iron, zinc or stainless steel.
K&H Precision Products, Inc.
Honeoye Falls, NY | 585-624-4894Here at K&H, we use a fine sand mold process and use fine sand and a urethane binder to produce a broad range of products. We are able to prototype permanent mold applications and produce thicker and irregular wall thicknesses. We offer short lead times for prototypes and low volume production castings as well as other in house value added services. For more information, visit our website or call us today! Our design team looks forward to working with you!
Alloy Cast Products, Inc.
Kenilworth, NJ | 908-245-2255Alloy Cast Products, Inc. was incorporated April 3, 1959. Our focus has always been castings and machine finished parts made from exotic cobalt based alloys, primarily our trademark REXALLOY materials. Extending our four decades of COBALT BASED alloy experience to all companies who are seeking solutions to their wear and corrosion problems has made us known throughout the world.
Titanium Investment Casting - Ferralloy Inc.A variety of metal alloys may be used in the investment casting process, including titanium, aluminum, copper, and stainless steel which are some of the most common materials. Because a wax model is created in the exact size and shape as the part, investment casting, or wax casting, allows for high dimensional accuracy.
Titanium investment casting is expensive compared to other methods like die casting although it has lower equipment costs and requires less finishing. Investment casting can be done by hand in single or small batches or can be semi-automated and produce hundreds of parts at once.
Titanium Investment Casting - Ferralloy Inc.Castings can be as small as fractions of an inch thick to weighing 1,000 pounds though most parts are 15 pounds or less. Titanium castings are very strong and lightweight and are used for turbocharger components, industrial tools, and instruments and other applications in the defense, aerospace, transportation, power generation, marine, and medical industries.
The process of investment casting begins with a wax replica of the part that has been hand or machine carved or produced through injection molding. The wax pattern is attached to a sprue, or wax rod. Depending on the size and shape of the part, several hundred patterns may be attached to the same sprue resulting in an assembly called a tree.
The tree is dipped in a ceramic slurry called the investment. It is dipped multiple times in mixtures that are increasingly coarse. When the investment is thick enough on the wax pattern, it is left to dry. Another method is to place the tree in a flask and pour investment into the container until the tree is completely covered.
The use of a low-temperature oven or a vacuum can speed the process. Once dry, the tree is placed in an oven or furnace upside down to allow the melting wax to drip out. During the burnout phase, the investment shell is left to heat even more in order to completely eliminate any residual moisture or wax.
Molten titanium is poured in the space and may be drawn in using a vacuum, positive air pressure, or centrifugal casting procedures. Once the titanium part is cooled and hardened, the investment is removed through a variety of techniques including vibrations, hammers, a dissolving agent, or media-blasting.