Investment Casting Steel Parts
Investment casting is particularly suited to steel parts, as steel is an ideal metal for investment casting due to its fluidity when melted. The process is popular in the aerospace, defense, and automotive industries, where precision and strength are critical. However, investment casting can be used to produce parts in a range of metals, such as aluminum, copper, and brass.
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What is Investment Casting Steel Parts
Investment casting is particularly suited to steel parts, as steel is an ideal metal for investment casting due to its fluidity when melted. The process is popular in the aerospace, defense, and automotive industries, where precision and strength are critical. However, investment casting can be used to produce parts in a range of metals, such as aluminum, copper, and brass.
Our precision casting and CNC machining capabilities allow us to efficiently produce high-quality steel parts that meet our clients' specifications. We leverage our expertise in procicion casting to offer exceptional support to clients who require custom-engineered parts for their projects. In addition, our strict quality control measures ensure the production of quality parts that meet necessary industry standards.
Our company specializes in Investment Casting and manufacturing high-quality stainless steel casting products. With six affiliated casting workshops and two professional CNC machining workshops, we are a leading manufacturer in this field.
Precision Steel Casting Products
The investment casting process is executed in several steps. Firstly, a mold is created by pouring plaster into a negative of the desired object. After the mold has dried, a wax pattern is produced by injecting molten wax into the mold. This wax pattern is an exact replica of the desired product, and it is then coated with a ceramic shell to create the casting mold.
Stainless Steel Precision Casting Products
Stainless Steel Precision Investment Casting is a new and advanced way of creating high-quality parts with high dimensional accuracy and surface finish. With this process, you can create perfect parts that meet all your requirements. The process of Stainless Steel Precision Casting involves melting metal and pouring it into a mold. The mold is then cooled and the metal is solidified, leaving the desired shape and size of the part.
Investment casting(Lost Wax Casting) is a specialty of our company, and with nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, we have amassed a wealth of knowledge and expertise in this field. Our team of professionals is dedicated to providing top-quality services to our clients, and we strive to optimize the parts' solutions to save you money.
Investment Steel Casting Parts
Our investment casting process uses high-quality steel materials and advanced technology to produce precise components of different shapes and sizes. This process is suitable for producing complex parts with intricate details that cannot be easily created using other production methods.
Stainless Steel Lost Wax Casting
We work closely with our customers and base our production process on their drawings or provided samples. We take the provided information and requirements, and transform them into 3D models for the toolings making. Ultimately, our goal is to deliver the best quality products that our customers desire.
Stainless Steel Investment Casting
In addition to investment casting, we also offer cnc machining services. Our state-of-the-art equipment and experienced staff allow us to provide precision machining that meets or exceeds industry standards. We pay close attention to detail and work closely with our customers to ensure that their products meet their exact specifications.
Alloy Steel Investment Casting
We offer investment casting services using alloy steel or stainless steel for superior strength, durability, and resistance to wear and tear. Our casting process utilizes the latest technology and equipment to produce high-quality components that meet or exceed industry standards.
High Accuracy and Repeatability
Investment casting can produce steel parts with exceptional precision, often achieving tolerances within a few tenths of a millimeter. This high level of accuracy and repeatability is crucial for applications that require tight tolerances and consistent performance.
Complex Geometry
The process allows for the creation of intricate and complex shapes that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with other casting methods. This flexibility in design makes investment casting ideal for parts with intricate internal passages, thin walls, and other complex features.
Smooth Surface Finish
The surfaces of investment cast steel parts are typically very smooth, requiring minimal post-processing. This saves time and money on finishing operations and can enhance the overall aesthetics of the part.
Near-Net Shape Capability
Investment casting can produce parts that are very close to their final shape, reducing the need for extensive machining. This not only saves material but also reduces the time and cost associated with secondary operations.
Material Versatility
Investment casting can be used with various types of steel alloys, allowing for the production of parts with specific mechanical properties. This versatility makes it possible to optimize the material selection based on the intended use of the part.
Cost-Effectiveness for High-Volume Production
While investment casting may have higher initial costs due to tooling and setup, it becomes increasingly cost-effective for high-volume production runs. The ability to produce multiple parts simultaneously and the reduction in secondary operations contribute to its overall cost-effectiveness.
Material of Investment Casting Steel Parts
Steels
Investment casting performs exceptionally with mild steel, high carbon steels, and other special steel alloys. Investment casted steel parts have a wide range of applications in aerospace, military industries, and shipbuilding.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel has good strength, corrosion resistance, and a fine shiny surface. Common products include pump housings, valve components, gears, and bushings.
Aluminum Alloys
These are lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and have a good strength-to-weight ratio. The main aluminum products are aircraft and automotive parts.
Nickel Alloys
Nickel alloys have superior strength, corrosion resistance, and high thermal stability. Parts cast from these alloys are used for high-intensity applications in hot, oxidizing environments.
Cobalt-Alloys
Cobalt alloys have strong resistance against wear, corrosion, chemical reactions, and extreme temperatures. These high-performance alloys have several applications in medical, food processing, and heavy machinery industries.
Cast Iron
Cast iron has good strength and durability. It is useful in manufacturing electrical components, pipe fittings, tool hardware, etc.
Copper Alloys
Copper alloys such as brass and bronze have medium-level tensile strength, ductility, thermal conductivity, and a great appearance. Owing to this, these alloys have applications in plumbing components, heat sinks, heat exchangers, etc.
Application of Investment Casting Steel Parts
The energy sector has a very specific use for this manufacturing technique. Wind turbine blades are huge, weigh tons, and require superior strength and surface finish. This combination of qualities is an advantage of this method.
Investment casting of metal parts is common in the marine industry. Strong, corrosion-resistant metallic panels for ships and submarines are manufactured with special alloys. Since this method is compatible with numerous metal alloys, it is well suitable for this application.
This technique can manufacture crucial parts in aircraft engines and bodies owing to the requirements of complex geometries and strength.
The ability to cast small parts with a superior surface finish puts this method at an advantage in the medical industry. Prosthetics, implants, and surgical equipment are some standard applications.
In the automotive industry, high-performance parts like drive train components, rocker arms, and power train elements are made.
The Accuracy of Investment Casting Steel Part
Casting is the process of creating metal shapes by pouring molten metal into a mold and letting it solidify. Molds can be either permanent, meaning they're reused, or expendable, in which case they are made, used once, and broken apart. investment casting steel part is an expendable process where molds are made by coating a wax pattern in a ceramic shell. The wax is melted out to leave a cavity. Cores are placed in the cavity to create voids in the cast part. Metal is poured in and left to solidify, after which the shell and cores are broken apart. Parts are cut away from the metal distribution channels and sent for finishing. This process is more accurate than the other well-known expendable mold process – sand casting – but less so than permanent mold casting. However, the tooling is less expensive and lead times are shorter.
Tolerances of Investment Casting Steel Part
Tolerances
Physical tolerances for investment cast machine parts are governed by several conditions of the lost wax casting process. The temperature of the wax mold and die, the chemical composition of the slurry shell, and the heat treating duration and temperature are just a few factors affecting the size of the final product. Investment cast parts undergo linear tolerancing for edge straightness, surface flatness, length, hole depth and radii, fillet and chamfer radii, and concentricity. Geometric tolerancing defines and communicates investment casting steel part profiles, parallelism, roundness, perpendicularity, tapering, cam profiles and true positioning.
Flatness
Flatness tolerance is the quantified variance from a flat plane. The investment cast part's surface must lie between the perfectly flat plane and the plane representing the maximum deviation permitted under the design parameters.
Straightness
Measuring straightness is determining the maximum tolerable diameter of the part's divergence from a perfectly straight line. Axial straightness of investment cast shafts or plates is determined by our rigorous quality verification process, weeding out propellers and other machine parts before any product is shipped to you.
Parallelism
If your design includes parallel prongs supported only at one end, this presents a particular challenge for the completion of precise investment casting steel part. Yoke castings also require special attention.
Roundness or "Out of Round"
"Out of round" is defined as the radial difference between a true circle and a given circumference. It is the total indicator reading when the part is rotated 360° or it can be calculated by taking half the difference between the maximum and minimum condition. The latter technique is usually preferred since it takes less time.
Concentricity
Concentricity of cylindrical surfaces is measured by the distance between their axes. Precise concentricity is essential in a wide variety of machines, often to reduce vibrations caused by rotating components. In these cases, above-tolerance eccentricity can be the root cause of gradual vibrational wear and tear to surrounding machine parts.
Investment casting steel part foundries usually commit to maintaining an accuracy grade between CT4 and CT8. To quantify this, at CT4 the tolerance on a dimension of 40 to 63 mm is 0.36 mm. At CT8 the tolerance on the same dimension is 1.4 mm. For comparison, sand casting typically achieves between CT 8 and 9. The reason for the number of accuracy grades in investment casting steel part comes down to the ceramic used. Silica sol is capable of CT4 but is also the most expensive. Less costly sodium silicate is usually specified for accuracy grades of CT 7 to 8. Part design and the alloy used also play in part in the accuracy achievable. Discuss your requirements with an investment casting steel part specialist to determine what's practical.
Common Applications of Investment Casting Steel Parts in the Food Industry
01
Processing Equipment
Investment casting steel parts are widely used in the production of food processing equipment. Critical components like valves, pumps, and mixers are often made using this technique due to their need for precision, durability, and resistance to corrosion.
02
Packaging Machinery
In the realm of packaging and bottling, investment castings contribute significantly. They are used in manufacturing parts for machinery that require high precision and reliability, ensuring efficient and consistent packaging processes.
03
Custom Components for Specialized Production
The food industry often requires custom-made parts for specialized processing. Investment castings allow for the creation of such unique components, catering to niche food production like artisanal cheese making or specialized bakery equipment.
04
Hygienic Design
The non-porous nature of investment casting steel parts, especially when made with stainless steel, makes them ideal for applications where hygiene is a priority. This feature is essential in food processing and handling equipment, where cleanliness and food safety are paramount.
Stainless Steel
As previously discussed, stainless steel is a popular choice due to its corrosion resistance, strength, and hygienic properties. It is ideal for parts that are in constant contact with food products.
Aluminum Alloys
Lightweight yet strong, aluminum alloys are used in investment casting steel part steel parts for food processing equipment where weight is a concern. They are also known for good thermal conductivity, making them suitable for heat transfer applications.
Bronze Alloys
Bronze is selected for its excellent wear resistance and strength. It's often used in components like gears and bearings in food processing machinery.
Nickel-based Alloys
These alloys are chosen for their exceptional heat and corrosion resistance. They are particularly useful in high-temperature food processing applications.
Carbon and Low-Alloy Steels
For applications where toughness is required, such as in grinding or chopping equipment, carbon and low-alloy steels are used. They provide the necessary strength and wear resistance.
Type of metal
Due to different metal alloys, the cost will also be different. In steel castings, investment casting steel part is the most expensive for the high stainless steel cost. Compared with steel castings, as cost of iron alloy is lower, so iron castings are much cheaper. Of course, for the same material, the cost may vary in different periods. So purchasers will get cheaper castings when the material cost is in a low status.
Yield of casting
Yield of casting is the percentage of actual casting weights & pouring metal weight. For a special investment casting steel part part, the yield is like percentage of the fruits and the tree. It is related to the structure of investment casting steel parts and tree assembly method, and may change between range of 30% to 60%, mostly in 40%-50%. The lower of casting yield, the higher the cost will be.
Quantity of shell building layers
As the shapes of investment casting steel parts are always different, there will exsit difference in shell building layers. For more complex structures, more shell building layers will be needed, which will cost more.
Production technique
Even if investment casting steel part, a part could be made both in water glass investment casting steel part and silical sol investment casting steel part techniques. Silical sol casting will acheve investment casting steel parts with better dimension accuracy and surface finish, so the cost will be higher than water glass casting. Of course, water glass casting is more easily accepted by our customers due to its lower production cost. But if more precise tolerances and surface finish are required, silica sol casting is preferred.
Sourcing country
It has been popular that compaines turn to China to purchase investment casting steel parts for its low cost. In China, although the labour cost is keep rising, compared with developed countries, the larbour cost is much lower. It is quite expensive to make investment casting steel parts in European and American countries.
Prevention Methods of Common Investment Casting Steel Part Defects
Gas hole
Gas hole is the hole that exists in the casting surface or internal area. It can be round, oval, or irregular shape, sometimes is an air mass made up of multiple gas holes. Internal gas holes is usually pear-shaped. Shape of choking hole is irregular, and the surface is rough. Gas nest is casting dents on the surface, the surface is much more smooth.
Prevention Methods:
● Mould should be fully preheat, the granularity of coatings (graphite) shoulds not be too thin, permeability needs to be good.
● Using tilt pouring way when casting.
● Raw materials should be stored in ventilated, dry place, and should be preheated when used.
● Choose deoxidizer (magnesium) with better deoxidization effect.
● Pouring temperature should not be exorbitant.
Shrinkage Cavity (Shrinkage)
Investment casting steel part shrinkageShrinkage cavity is the surface rough hole in the casting surface or internal, slight shrinkage cavity is many scattered small shrinkage cavity, namely shrinkage. The grains of shrinkage cavity are big and thick. Often occur in the casting sprue, riser root, thick area, the connecting area between thin & wall thickness, ect.
Prevention Methods:
● Improve mold temperature.
● Adjust the thickness of coating layer, even paint spraying, and avoid local coating accumulation phenomenon when coating paint falls off or filling.
● Local heating the mold, or local heat preservation using thermal insulation material.
● Design the heat sink in the mold , or the cooling speed accelerate the cooling speed in local area through water, or else spray water outside the mold.
● Place detachable handling chill blocks in turn inside the cavity , to avoid sufficient cooling of blocks when continuous production.
● Design pressure device on the riser of mold.
● Accurately design the gating system, and choose suitable pouring temperature.
Slag hole (flux slag or metal oxide slag)
Slag hole is clear or unclear hole in the casting. It is fully or partially filled by slag, and the shape is irregular. Small shape flux slag is not easy to be found, after removing slag, it will present smooth hole, general is distributed at the bottom area of the pouring position, around the runner section, or near the corner.
Prevention Methods:
● Correct gating system design, or use cast fiber filter.
● Using tilt pouring way.
● Choose the flux, and strictly control the quality.
Crack (thermal crack, cold crack)
Investment casting steel part crackThe appearance of the crack is linear or irregular curve. The surface of thermal crack is dark grey or black due to strong oxidation, no metallic luster. The fracture surface of cold crack is clean, with metallic luster. General casting crack can be seen directly, however, inside crack can only be seen using other methods.Cracks are often associated with defects such as shrinkage, slag inclusion.
Prevention Methods:
● Attention should be paid on the casting structure, make uniform transition of non-uniform wall thickness. And adopt the appropriate fillet size.
● Adjust the thickness of the coating, try to achieve the required cooling rate of each casting area, and avoid to form too large internal stress.
● The working temperature of the metal mould should be paid attention to and adjust the angle of mold.
Cold Shut
Cold shut is a kind of slot or surface crack with round edge, the middle is separated by a scale, so it is not fully integrated. When the cold shot is serious, it will become "owe cast". Cold shut often appears in the top wall of the casting, thin horizontal or vertical plane, or in the joint area of thin & thick wall thickness.
Prevention Methods:
● Correct design the runner and exhaust system.
● Proper thicken the coating layer for thin wall thickness investment casting steel parts.
● Improve mold working temperature.
● Using tilt pouring way.
● Using mechanical vibration metal mould for casting.
Machined investment casting steel partsOne of the main advantages of machining is its precision. If the tolerances for dimension and size are too tight for the investment casting steel part process, the feature or hole must be machined. Various casting processes feature differing capabilities for achieving certain tolerances. Machining also provides a nicer surface finish, which is important in applications when the part is meant to create a seal with another component or assembly. Machining becomes expensive, however, when multiple fixtures and jigs must be designed and produced to machine different planes of a part. Additional time also is needed to change the machine setup for each plane to be machined. Casting in the feature eliminates the secondary machining cost. Single machining will add extra production time and cost. If machining can fulfill all the needs of applications, the additional cost to do so is negligible.
Jining Wabon Precision Metal Co., Ltd is a company that has been in existence since 2002. Over the years, the company has grown and expanded its operations to become one of the leading manufacturers of precision castings in China. Our team is made up of 260 skilled and dedicated staff who work round the clock to ensure that all our clients' needs are met satisfactorily.Our production capability is impressive, with a capacity of over 1000 tons of precision castings annually. We specialize in producing precision castings using the silica sol shell mould technique.
Ultimate FAQ Guide to Investment Casting Steel Parts
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