Investment Casting

Investment casting is an industrial process based on lost-wax casting, one of the oldest known metal-forming techniques. The term "lost-wax casting" can also refer to modern investment casting processes.

Investment casting has been used in various forms for the last 5,000 years. In its earliest forms, beeswax was used to form patterns necessary for the casting process. Today, more advanced waxes,refractory materials and specialist alloys are typically used for making patterns. Investment casting is valued for its ability to produce components with accuracy, repeatability, versatility and integrity in a variety of metals and high-performance alloys

• Casting Simulation – Main objective of using computer-aided casting design and simulation software to casting process is to offer maximum data on casting quality by predicting solidification occurrences and associated features which can be helpful to get an optimum level cast part soundness with maximum defect free component.
• Tool Development – The first step involves designing and building a metal die from Aluminium. This die creates a wax replica of the desired part by injecting melted wax under high pressure into the cavity. The die can be made as a simple one cavity manual tool or a complex multi-cavity automatic tool depending on volume requirements.
• Wax Pattern Injection – Pattern wax will be used in hydraulic manual, semi or automatic injection press machine to fill the die or tool mirror cavity through the wax so desired metal part same copy wax part will be inject along with inbuilt gating or feeding system.
• Wax Pattern Assembly – The wax patterns are assembled onto vertical or horizontal runner or base and into a finished tree with the help of sticky wax, Assembly tree can be single part per assembly or multiple part per assembly depends on part weight & area as per geometry.
• Ceramic Shelling – The assembly is then dipped into a high-grade ceramic slurry to build a ceramic shell around the wax tree. After the slurry coating is done, particles of sand are dropped onto the surface of the wet tree assembly. This helps to thicken and strengthen the layer of coating on the wax assembly surface. Repeat steps of further backup coating until the assembly achieves the desired shell thickness. The assembly is then allowed to set and dry.
• Shell Dewaxing – The wax inside the newly built shell is now removed so the ceramic covered shell outer wax tree will be with hollow mirror cavity of the cast parts. Dewaxing is done using a steam-dewaxing autoclave or flash fire furnace.
• Shell Firing – To burn the residual wax from the ceramic shell cavity and to strengthen then ceramic shell up to high temperature withstanding capacity these shells are backed or fired in shell backing or continuous firing furnace.
• Pouring – After batch sample satisfactory report of liquid metal prepared in furnace the metal is ready for pouring. Now the desired molten metal is poured into the pre-heated mould cavity.
• Knockout & Cutting – Invested ceramic outer the wax assembly tree will re removed from the metal poured shells which called knockout process and from metallic assembly shell individual parts will be cutting from gating or feeding system.
• Heat Treatment – The purpose of heat treatment is to change a mechanical property or combination of mechanical properties so that the metal will be more useful, serviceable, and safe for a definite purpose. By heat treating, a metal can be made harder, stronger, and more resistant to impact, heat treatment can also make a metal softer and more ductile.
• Fettling – Parts will be grind on gating or feeding system with near and net shape matching of the exact cast part then it will be done shot blasting or ceramic blasting as per the material specification or process selection of fettling stage.
• Machining & Shipment – Various machining techniques are then employed including CNC or VMC or HMC or VTL or SPM to achieve the final surface finish & dimensions needed to more important with function, fitment & application area point of view then after with all quality checks & approval parts will be done with standard or customised packaging system to make a shipment on desired location by customer.

Infrastructure	Facility spread over 22,000 sq.ft.
Plant Capacity by Volume	600 MT per Annum.
Surface Condition	Shot, Ceramic, Glass Bead, Electro Polishing, Buffing | Polishing or as per Customer Requirement.
Supply Condition	Raw, Finished, Assembled or as per Customer's Demand.
Job Capacity by Size LxBxH	450 mm X 450 mm X 450 mm.
Job Capacity by Diameter	700 mm.
Wall Thickness	From 0.8 mm to 30 mm Section.
Weight	0.001 kg to 90 kg per piece
Surface Finish	Ra 3.2 to 6.3 micron.
Dimensional Accuracy	IS 11166 1993-Class 2, VDG P690 D1 or as per Customer Requirement.
Design	Siemens NX Unigraphics, SoftCAST Simulation.
Wax	Manual Injection Press Machine - 9 Nos. Automatic Injection Press Machine - 2 Nos.
Coating	High Speed Slurry Mixture Machine upto 1200 RPM - 1 Nos. Slurry Drum Machine - 7 Nos. Fluidized Bed Machine- 5 Nos. Rainfall Sander Machine - 1 Nos. Dehumidifier Machine - 2 Nos. High Speed Centrifugal Fan - 4 Nos. Dewaxing Autoclave Machine - 1 Nos.
Melting	Induction Furnace 300 kg. - 3 Nos. Induction Furnace 100 kg. - 1 Nos. Gradual Heating Electric Furnace - 1 Nos. Shell Firing Furnace 6x6 feet - 1 Nos. Argon Purging - 2 Nos. Nitrogen Purging - 2 Nos.
Fettling	Knockout Machine - 2 Nos. Cutting Machine - 5 Nos. Grinding Machine - 4 Nos. Shot Blasting Machine - 3 Nos. Ceramic Blasting Machine - 2 Nos.
Quality	Spectrometer - 1 Nos. Universal Testing Machine - 1 Nos. Impact Test Machine - 1 Nos. (Izod & Charpy) Hardness Test Machine - 1 Nos. Measuring Instruments.

Investment Casting (Lost-Wax Casting) can be used in various industry to make an optimum level solutions where the typical applications or business areas you can check with the click on this link https//www.gravitycastindia.com/products

• Affordable tooling development cost
• Excellent surface finish
• High dimensional accuracy
• Extremely intricate parts are castable
• Almost any metal can be cast
• No flash or parting lines
• Effective utilization of metal

• Difficult to cast objects requiring cores
• Longer production cycles compared to other casting processes
• Quite expensive

• Design Freedom
• Reduced Machining
• Reduced Fabrication
• Reduced Weight
• Good Part Soundness
• Good Mechanical Properties
• Superior Aesthetic Look
• Good Production Efficiencies

• Tooling, Jig-Fixture and Gauges Development.
• Simple Components - 3 to 4 weeks.
• Average Components - 6 to 8 weeks.
• Critical Components - 10 to 12 weeks.

• As-Raw Product Sample Development for Initial Customer Approval.
• Simple Components - 2 to 4 weeks.
• Average Components - 4 to 6 weeks.
• Critical Components - 6 to 8 weeks.
• Machined Product Sample Development for Initial Customer Approval.
• Simple Components - 6 to 8 weeks.
• Average Components - 8 to 10 weeks.
• Critical Components - 10 to 12 weeks.
• Assembled Product Sample Development for Initial Customer Approval.
• Simple Components - 8 to 10 weeks.
• Average Components - 10 to 12 weeks.
• Critical Components - 12 to 14 weeks.

• As-Raw Product Bulk Production after Sample Approval.
• Simple Components - 5 to 6 weeks
• Average Components - 6 to 8 weeks
• Critical Components - 8 to 10 weeks
• Machined Product Bulk Production after Sample Approval.
• Simple Components - 6 to 8 weeks
• Average Components - 8 to 10 weeks
• Critical Components - 10 to 12 weeks
• Assembled Product Bulk Production after Sample Approval.
• Simple Components - 8 to 10 weeks
• Average Components - 10 to 12 weeks
• Critical Components - 12 to 14 weeks