lost wax investment casting process

The investment casting process is a kind of metal forming technology with a very long history. And when we use a wax pattern for the casting, investment casting is also known as a lost wax casting process.

The types of alloys produced by the investment casting process include carbon steels, alloy steels, heat-resistant alloys, stainless steels, precision alloys, permanent magnet alloys, and bearing alloys, copper alloys, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, and ductile iron.

Generally, the lost wax investment casting process suits products with complex shapes better. The minimum diameter of the hole that we can cast out directly reaches as small as 0.5mm, and the minimum wall thickness can reach 0.3mm. We can usually change one product during the production procedures, which is combined initially from several parts, into a single piece that we can make it out entirely via the investment casting process to save more time and raw materials.

The process is complicated and not easy to control. Also, the auxiliary materials are expensive, so investment casting is more suitable for manufacturing products with complex shapes, high precision requirements, and difficulties of being machined, such as turbine engine blades, etc.