The notion of an integral ceramic shell and core for an investment casting has been described by some in the industry as the Holy Grail. Certainly a ceramic mold or shell that has a built-in core-with no need for a wax pattern is an intriguing concept. The advent of 3D-printing for ceramics has brought this concept closer to reality. While the integral core/mold is not yet fully production-ready, a number of revolutionary products employing 3D-printing of ceramics are appearing in production applications. Specifically, various forms of 3D-printed ceramic tooling can replace conventionally-produced ceramics-and eliminate both hard tooling and wax patterns- for a number of applications. These ceramic tools have demonstrated order-of-magnitude reductions in cycle times for investment castings as well as dramatic reductions in nonrecurring costs for tooling and engineering.
展开▼
