Design and Tolerance
Design
The design factors we suggest you to take into account before our production process starts, regardless of whether we design your investment castings or merely provide you advice.
Flatness and Symmetry
Avoiding thick-to-thin portions and using ribs can help create a part that is flatter and straighter. Large flat planes should have inclined geometry nearby to encourage solidification and prevent cavitation from happening and causing a sump on the large flat surface. On flat surfaces, whenever possible, try to employ thicknesses that are uniform.
Blind Holes
A blind hole’s depth shouldn’t be greater than its width. Blind holes are more difficult to cast than through holes, however depending on interior geometry or diameter, through holes could also need ceramic cores. A secondary machining procedure could be most cost-effective in some circumstances, particularly with threaded holes.
Undercuts
Can make wax tooling more complex and, in some situations, necessitate the use of ceramic cores, which might raise the price.
Surface Finishing
Our castings can be finished in various ways as per customer requirements. These may include:
- Polished (Vibro, Electro and Hand)
- Coated (Black oxide, Powder, Nickel and Zinc)
- Painted
You can also incorporate specific textures into the product at various stages of the process. The most common surface finishing process is pickling and passivation, though there are more options available to you and they are:
- High Velocity oxygen fuel coating
- Electroplating
- Electro polishing
- Powder coating
- Ultrasonic Cleaning
Tolerance
The ability to hold tolerances depends on the part’s geometry and linear size, however, our investment castings can do so without the use of additional processes down to 0.003″ (76 microns).
Although there is a shrinkage component, it can generally be expected, and we will account for it in our prototype and process. Our investment castings typically have dimensional accuracy levels that are far higher than those minimally needed for the product.
