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How do I choose the right investment casting company for my project?

Choosing the right investment casting company for your project is crucial to ensure the success and quality of your investment casting needs. Here are some steps you can follow to make an informed decision:

Define your project requirements: Clearly outline your project’s specifications, including the type of material, dimensions, tolerances, and any specific features or complexities. This will help you assess whether a casting company can meet your specific needs.

Research potential casting companies: Look for investment casting companies that have experience and a good reputation in the industry. Search online, check industry directories, and ask for recommendations from colleagues or professionals in your field. Heda Castings started exporting precision casting parts since 2004 and have built long-term business relationships with clients from all over the world.

Evaluate their expertise and capabilities: Review the company’s website, brochures, and any available documentation to assess their expertise and capabilities. Look for information on their experience with similar projects, the range of materials they work with, and the types of industries they serve. Heda-castings offers investment castings in most kinds of material such as alloy steel, stainless steel, brass and more. Our clients are from various of industries including automotive, medical, energy, construction, homeware, household electrical appliances, railway, machinery, defense and so forth.

Quality and certifications: Check if the company has appropriate certifications, such as ISO 9001 or other industry-specific quality standards. These certifications indicate that the company follows established processes and maintains high-quality standards. Our foundry is a ISO9001-2015 certificated factory.

Request samples and references: Ask the casting companies for samples of their previous work to evaluate the quality of their castings. Additionally, request references from their existing clients and contact them to inquire about their experience working with the company.

Capacity and production capabilities: Determine whether the casting company has the capacity to handle your project. Consider factors such as production volume, lead time, and their ability to scale up production if needed. Our annual production capacity is more than 4,000 tons.

Technical support and collaboration: Assess the level of technical support and collaboration the casting company can provide. A reliable company should be able to offer guidance and expertise throughout the design and manufacturing process, suggesting improvements and optimizations where necessary. Our engineers can offer design and engineering support. We have experienced engineers who can review your designs, provide feedback, and offer suggestions for improving manufacturability and cost-effectiveness.

Pricing and affordability: Obtain quotes from multiple casting companies to compare pricing. However, remember that choosing the lowest-cost option may not always yield the best results. Consider the overall value, including quality, expertise, and reliability, along with the pricing.

Communication and responsiveness: Evaluate the communication skills and responsiveness of the casting company. Timely and clear communication is essential for a successful collaboration. Our sales team has good English skill and professional knowledge of investment casting.

Supply chain management: Consider how the casting company manages its supply chain. They should have established relationships with reputable material suppliers to ensure the quality and availability of materials. Efficient supply chain management can also contribute to shorter lead times and reduced costs. Our factory is close to Shanghai port and Ningbo port, we have our own exporting company in Shanghai and we have very reliable partners in inland transportation and international logistics field, in order to ensure our parts can be shipped or air world wide safe and in time.

Visit the facilities (if possible): If feasible, arrange a visit to the casting company’s facilities to see their operations firsthand. This will give you a better understanding of their capabilities, quality control processes, and the overall working environment. We welcome all the clients to pay a visit to our foundry in China.

By following these steps, you can make an informed decision when selecting an investment casting company that aligns with your project requirements and can deliver high-quality castings within your desired timeframe.

Please feel free to contact us and we look forward to building a long-term business relationship with you.

investment casting gear wheel

What industries commonly use investment casting?

Investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, is a versatile manufacturing process used in various industries. Some of the industries that commonly use investment casting include:

Aerospace: Investment casting is widely utilized in the aerospace industry for manufacturing complex and high-precision components such as turbine blades, engine parts, and structural components. The process enables the production of intricate shapes and allows for the use of lightweight materials.

Automotive: Investment casting finds application in the automotive industry for producing components like engine parts, exhaust manifolds, intake manifolds, suspension components, and other precision parts. The process offers design flexibility, enabling the production of intricate geometries and reducing the need for machining.

Medical: Investment casting plays a crucial role in the medical industry for manufacturing surgical instruments, orthopedic implants, dental components, and other medical devices. The process allows for the production of complex shapes with high accuracy and surface finish.

Energy: Investment casting is employed in the energy sector, particularly in the production of components for gas and steam turbines, nuclear power plants, and renewable energy systems. The process facilitates the creation of intricate and heat-resistant parts for these applications.

Defense: The defense industry utilizes investment casting for producing various components, including weapon systems, military vehicle parts, and aircraft components. The process enables the production of strong, lightweight, and complex parts critical to defense applications.

Jewelry: Investment casting has long been used in the jewelry industry to create intricate and detailed designs. It allows jewelers to produce complex shapes and patterns with high precision, offering a versatile method for creating custom jewelry pieces.

Art and Sculpture: Artists and sculptors utilize investment casting to bring their creative ideas to life. The process enables the replication of intricate details and allows artists to work with a variety of metals, providing them with the freedom to explore different forms and textures.

These are just a few examples of industries that commonly employ investment casting. However, the versatility of the process extends to other sectors as well, where complex shapes, precision, and repeatability are desired in the manufacturing of metal components.

lost wax casting part

What are the advantages of investment casting over other casting methods?

Investment casting, also known as precision casting or lost wax casting, offers several advantages over other casting methods. Here are some of the key advantages of investment casting:

Design flexibility: Investment casting allows for the production of complex and intricate shapes with high dimensional accuracy. It offers design flexibility, enabling the creation of parts with thin walls, fine details, and internal features that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with other casting methods.

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Excellent surface finish: Investment casting results in parts with a smooth surface finish, reducing the need for additional machining or finishing operations. This can save time and costs in the production process.

Wide material selection: Investment casting supports a broad range of materials, including various alloys, stainless steel, carbon steel, tool steel, and superalloys. This versatility allows manufacturers to choose the most suitable material for the specific application requirements.

Cost-effective for small to medium production runs: Investment casting is particularly advantageous for small to medium production runs. It offers cost efficiencies in terms of material usage, as it minimizes waste compared to other casting methods. Additionally, the ability to consolidate multiple components into a single investment casting reduces assembly and labor costs.

High dimensional accuracy and repeatability: Investment casting yields parts with tight tolerances and high dimensional accuracy. The use of precision molds and wax patterns ensures consistent replication of intricate details, resulting in parts that meet precise specifications.

Wide size and weight range: Investment casting can produce parts ranging from a few grams to several kilograms in weight. This versatility makes it suitable for a wide range of applications across various industries.

Reduced need for secondary operations: Investment casting can often produce near-net-shape parts, reducing the need for extensive post-casting machining or other secondary operations. This can save time, costs, and material waste.

Improved part integrity: The investment casting process minimizes porosity and internal defects, resulting in parts with enhanced mechanical properties, structural integrity, and overall reliability.

Overall, investment casting offers the advantage of producing complex, high-quality parts with excellent surface finish and dimensional accuracy, making it a preferred choice for various industries, including aerospace, automotive, medical, and more.

investment casting wax injection

Which machineries are needed in an investment casting foundry?

Investment casting is a precision casting process that produces high-quality metal parts with complex shapes and fine details. Investment casting equipment are used to produce these parts, we suggest you to read the processes of investment casting first in order to understand why these machineries are needed. In this article, we’ll explore the various types of investment casting machineries and their functions.

Wax Injection Equipment: The wax injection equipment is used to inject molten wax into the steel or AL mold to form the wax pattern. This machinery includes a wax tank, wax injection nozzle, wax injector, and wax pattern assembly. The equipment should be able to accurately control the temperature and pressure of the wax injection process to ensure consistent and high-quality wax patterns.

Ceramic Shell Production Equipment: The ceramic shell production equipment is used to create the ceramic shell that encases the wax pattern. This machinery includes a shell building station. The equipment should be able to create a strong and durable ceramic mold that can withstand the high temperatures and pressure of the casting process.

Melting and Pouring Equipment: The melting and pouring equipment is used to melt the metal and pour it into the ceramic mold. This machinery includes a furnace, a crucible, a ladle, and a pouring system. The equipment should be able to accurately control the melting temperature and pouring rate to ensure that the metal flows smoothly into the mold and fills all the intricate details of the wax pattern.

Cleaning and Finishing Equipment: The cleaning and finishing equipment is used to remove the ceramic shell and any residual wax from the cast metal part. This machinery includes a shell breaking machine, a shot blasting machine or a sandblasting machine and a grinding machine. The equipment should be able to provide the desired surface finish and dimensional accuracy of the final part.

Quality Control Equipment: The quality control equipment is used to verify that the final part meets the required specifications. This machinery includes various measuring tools such as a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) or a 3D scanner, a surface roughness tester and a metal composition analyzer. The equipment should be able to accurately measure the dimensions, chemical composition of the metal and surface finish of the final part to ensure its quality.

Other than the machineries mentioned above, an investment casting foundry still needs some other equipment such as dewaxing furnace, cutting machine, grinding machine, dust remover machine and more. Investment casting machineries are crucial components of the investment casting process. They play a significant role in determining the quality and consistency of the final product. By using high-quality machineries and maintaining them properly, investment casting foundries can produce high-quality metal parts that meet the demanding requirements of various industries.

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Comparison between investment casting and sand casting

Investment casting and sand casting are two different methods of metal casting, both of which involve pouring liquid metal into a mold to create a metal part. Investment casting and sand casting have their own advantages, so you can’t simply say which one is better, but which one is more suitable for producing your products. As a professional investment casting foundry, the difference between investment casting and sand casting are often asked by our customers, so we wrote this article to compare two casting methods.

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Investment casting (Lost wax casting)

Investment casting is a precision casting process that uses a lost wax process to shape the metal into a component. Firstly, we have to make a set of molds, lost wax casting molds are usually made of aluminum, if quantity of the component is large, we will also use steel molds. The process of investment casting, also known as lost wax casting, we inject wax into the mold to produce a wax pattern, and the wax patterns are assembled onto a sprue (what we called a “tree”), and then wrapped in refractory slurry on the outside of the tree to make a ceramic shell. Pour the molten metal into the shell. After cooling, we get the metal castings. Investment casting has the following advantages:

  • Investment casting can produce parts with complex shapes with very thin walls.
  • High accurate, investment castings can achieve high dimensional tolerance request.
  • Smooth surface finish can save further machining or surface finish process.
  • Material of investment casting can be Ferrous, nonferrous or duplex alloys. Investment casting can be quite economical by repeat runs.
sand-casting-foundry
Sand casting

Sand casting uses sand to form the mold surface. The mold made of sand has some flexibility, so when the liquid metal cools and hardens, there are fewer cracks, tears or other types of defects. Sand casting has the following advantages:

  • The cost of sand casting is lower especially in shorter runs.
  • Sand casting can produce larger castings.
  • Ferrous and non-ferrous metals can be also used.
  • Post-cast tooling cost is lower.

Differences Between Investment Casting & Sand Casting

Production design: In investment casting, ceramic shell is formed from liquid slurry, so investment castings can be designed into almost any shape, and engineers have great freedom to add the complex structures and shapes required in the design. In sand casting, the product is often designed to be tapered, so sand casting parts can be taken out from the sand mold easily with less friction. Sand castings with internal cavities or voids are more difficult to make. Sand castings requires insertion of a suitable core into the mold to form the internal structure, sometimes multiple cores may be needed.

Weight: Investment casting can make castings in weight less than 450 grams, while sand casting cannot cast small pieces with complex structures.

Surface finish: The surface of investment casting and sand casting has a big difference. Because of the material of the mold, the surface of the investment casting parts is smooth and can achieve high tolerance requirements. After removing the gate and blasting, the castings can be used directly. In sand casting, the mold has to be split apart to release the castings, so the parting line is more obvious. And because the sand is rough, the surface is also relatively rough and requires additional time and cost to process.

Cost: The complexity and preparation process of the investment casting process makes it cost more than sand casting. Comprehensively speaking, investment casting method is usually superior to other casting methods, especially in product details and surface finish. Shanghai Heda Castings Co., Ltd, a professional precision foundry with nearly 20 years of experience, is ISO-9001 certified. We can provide one-stop solution for your investment casting parts, from mold design to finished castings, machined castings, as well as heat treatment and surface treatment if requested. Please feel free to contact us if you need any assistance with your investment castings.