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Advantages of Investment Castings
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| 10 reasons to design for investment castings:
For physical and hardness data on a variety of ferrous alloys, click here. |
• Net or near-net shapes are possible due to the closely held tolerances. This can result in the reduction or elimination of machining. Standard linear tolerances are ±.005 inch per inch Straightness and flatness are generally held to .005” per linear inch. • As-cast surface finish of √125 or better improves the appearance of your finished product and possibly eliminates machining. • Complicated internal configurations are possible through the use of ceramic and soluble wax cores. • Draft angles are generally not required as with other casting methods. • Weight reduction is possible due to thin wall casting capability. Ferrous wall sections can be a minimum of .080” and nonferrous wall sections a minimum of .060”. • High strength-to-weight ratios are possible due to the wide selection of stronger alloys. • Part-to-part consistency is perhaps one of the greatest advantages to investment castings, very important when secondary CNC operations are required. • Ferrous and nonferrous alloys can be used interchangeably after allowing for metal shrink factor differentials (.028”/inch for steel, .018”/inch for aluminum and .012”/inch for brass). • Most holes can be cast to finish or tap size. Bolt-hole patterns are cast to a tolerance that meets most drawing requirements. • Low up-front tooling costs are comparable to sand cast match-plates. The wax injection molds are made of aluminum versus more expensive steel molds used for other metal-casting processes. |
Please feel free to contact our engineers if you have questions when designing for cast components. |
