Investment casting is one of the oldest manufacturing processes.Investment casting process was used mainly to reproduce metal parts and to reduce the time and labor needed for producing parts in quantity by metal smiths. Since then modern technology has made the metal smith basically extinct.
The mould is made by making a pattern using wax or some other material that can be melted away. This wax pattern is dipped in refractory slurry and covered with stucco, which coats the wax pattern and forms a skin.
This is dried and the process of dipping in the slurry, stuccoing and drying is repeated until a robust thickness is achieved.After this, the entire mould is placed in an oven and the wax is melted away. This leads to a mould cavity that can be filled with the molten metal. Check investment casting vs sand casting to learn more about investment casting...
Due to the advantages of investment casting, it can be used to make parts that cannot be produced by normal manufacturing techniques, such as turbine compressor blades that have complex shapes, or airplane parts that have to withstand high temperatures.
