Predicting Pattern Tooling and Casting Dimension for Investment Casting

摘要

The investment casting process is an expendable mold process where wax patterns of the part and rigging are molded, assembled, shelled and melted to produce a ceramic mold matching the shape of the component to be cast. Investment casting is an important manufacturing method for critical parts because of the ability to maintain dimensional shape and tolerances. However, these tolerances can be easily exceeded if the molding components do not maintain their individual shapes well. In the investment casting process there are several opportunities for the final casting shape to not maintain the intended size and shape, such as shrinkage of the wax in the injection tool, the modification of the shape during shell heating, and with the thermal shrink and distortion in the casting process.