THE INVESTMENT PROCESS

1. WAX INJECTION: Wax replicas of the desired castings are produced by injecting tooling with wax. These replicas are called wax patterns.
2.  ASSEMBLY: The wax patterns are attached to a central wax runner bar, to form an investment tree.
3.  SHELL BUILDING: The shell is built by immersing the tree in a liquid ceramic slurry and then coating in a refractory product. Up to 5 layers may be applied in this manner.
4. DE-WAX: Once the ceramic shell is dry, the wax is melted out, using an autoclave creating a negative impression of the assembly within the shell.
5. CASTING OF TREES: The investment trees are fired in an oven and pulled out while hot. The shell is then filled with molten metal by gravity pouring.
6. KNOCKOUT: When the metal has cooled and solidified, the ceramic shell is broken off by using vibration
7. CUT OFF: The parts are then cut away from the central runner bar using a high speed cut-off saw.
8. FINISHED CASTINGS: After minor finishing operations, the metal castings--identical to the original wax patterns--are inspected ready for shipment to the customer.

Services and Processes offered

ICQ presently manufactures investment cast parts ranging from 10 grams up to 25 kg. Productions runs can be from as little as 1 off to 1000’s off. We can supply castings in most material specifications (refer to material range) and can meet the most stringent quality and testing requirements. We offer in-house tooling manufacturing, rapid proto-typing, design assistance, heat treatment and machining.

 The advantages of the investment casting process are:

• Near net shape manufacture (ability to hold tight as cast tolerances)
• Reduced or no machining requirements (particularly advantageous for difficult to machine materials or internal sections which are difficult to machine)
• Ability to produce thin wall sections & intricate components
• Good surface finish
• Increased design flexibility
• Reduced costs for component cast in expensive alloys

Investment Casting