Lost-wax castings are commonly known as precision castings or investment castings. It is a procedure of designing and building an object with the use of a variety of metals. From simple to complex objects, lost-wax casting use metals like bronze, brass, silver, or gold to create an original pattern or model.
The Lost-Wax Casting Process
A Little Bit of History
Investment castings are known to be the oldest metal-forming procedure that dates back in 4000 BC. Even though it is the oldest known technique, innovations and technique evolutions made it possible to offer exceptional metalwork. Likewise, it is extensively used to produce objects for art, dentistry, and jewelry.
Making the Mold
The investment castings process starts with carving a mold out of wax. To get exceptional metalwork, you need to look for a casting industry that can handle your design’s size and complexity. The experts’ skill and the equipment used should be in line with what you want your finished product to be.Upon making and casting the mold, it will be intensively polished to comply with the exact measurements and dimensions. It is then used to create another wax mold that will be heated and transformed to create a more flexible mold.
Assembling the Wax Pattern
To guarantee product quality, investment castings use different methods such as coordinate measuring, ultrasonic, and dye penetrant. These methods will be used according to where the metal components will be used. Dye penetrant testing is a nondestructive method, and it includes cleaning the surface of a product, then applying a colored penetrant or dye. The wax pattern will primarily depend on which way will be used.
Finishing the Metalwork
The casted components are sandblasted, machined, ground, or files to attain the desired surface finish and final geometry. If necessary, the cast components are likewise heat-treated to improve the mechanical properties of the metalwork.
Know More About Investment Castings
If you want to know more about the products designed through investment castings, contact our experts at Ferralloy Inc. today!