Investment casting is a high-precision metal casting process, particularly suitable for producing small castings with complex shapes and stringent accuracy requirements. Its core feature involves using a molten mold (typically a wax mold) to form the cavity of the casting.
The main process steps: Wax mold manufacturing: Melted wax is injected into a precision metal mold to create a wax model identical to the final part.
Assembly of a wax tree: Multiple wax molds are welded onto a central wax casting system to form a 'wax tree,' enabling one-time batch casting.
Shell-making: The wax tree is repeatedly immersed in a special ceramic slurry, then coated with fine sand, and wrapped layer by layer to form a thick ceramic shell.
Wax removal: The wax tree with the ceramic mold is placed in a steam or hot water device, and the internal wax mold is completely melted and discharged, resulting in a hollow ceramic mold (i.e., casting mold).
Firing: The ceramic mold is fired at high temperature to make it firm and remove the residual wax.
Pouring: The molten metal is poured into the preheated ceramic mold.
Cleaning: After the metal has cooled and solidified, the outer ceramic mold is broken, the gating system is removed, and the casting undergoes subsequent cleaning and finishing, such as sandblasting.
