What Is Investment Casting?
Investment casting is a precision casting process used to create complex and intricate metal parts with high dimensional accuracy and fine surface finishes. This casting method is ideally suited to producing relatively high-quality components with intricate details, delicate features, and tight tolerances.
Investment casting is commonly used in industries such as: aerospace, automotive, jewelry, and medical devices, in which high precision and intricate designs are essential. It also produces castings with very tight tolerances and high dimensional accuracy. Investment castings typically have smooth and fine surface finishes. Investment casting can be used with a variety of materials, including various metals and alloys. It can also produce parts with complex shapes, internal cavities, and thin walls that are challenging for other casting methods.
Why Is Investment Casting Also Called the Lost Wax Process?
Lost wax is a very literal alternative name for the process. The investment in refractory material is a covering that is formed wet, over a wax pattern. This covering is then allowed to dry, before baking at high temperature. This serves two purposes. First, the refractory investment is solidified and chemically fused to form a strong material. Secondly, the wax is burned away, making the investment a tough and hollow body that perfectly and precisely represents the now-absent wax, as a space to be filled with metal. Thus, the wax is lost, hence the naming of the process.
