Investment Casting + Sand Casting: Hybrid cores promise the best of both

摘要

Investment casting continues to be the "cool" sort of metalcasting, involving high-tech materials and proprietary techniques, and favored for producing high-precision parts for cutting edge industries, like aerospace and medical equipment. Investment casting also earns a lot of investment capital. Now, sand casters may be able to snatch a bit of the magic. The Southwest Research Institute (www.swri.org), an independent research center in San Antonio, working with the British foundry Grainger and Worrall Ltd. (www.gwcast.co.uk), has developed a technology for producing heavily cored iron and steel castings in sand molds, but with cores that combine sand mixtures and ceramic structures. According to Marc Megel, asst. director of the Design Development Dept. of SwRI's Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division, "The Hybrid Ceramic-Sand Core Casting Technology will enable casting of narrow, complex passageways in a way not previously achievable with conventional iron casting techniques."