Application of 3D Printing in Investment Casting

Accelerate your casting productiontimelines with high quality, fast prototype and production casting patternswith 3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing services

Investment casting, often known as lost-waxcasting, is a manufacturing methodology that has been around for thousands ofyears. While there has been some degree of automation in the foundry industry,the need for the pattern around which to make the cast shape remains a constant– and waiting for tooling to create the patterns can take weeks or months,costing tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

3D printed casting patterns offer atool-free, fast, reliable and accurate alternative to patterns created usingtooling, reducing the costs of creating pattern by as much as 90%, and producedin one-tenth of the time. With two key 3D printing materials – SLA plastic andwax - that are fully industry-tested, your casting patterns can be competed indays or a couple of weeks, with little to no restriction on the size of thecasted part.

3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing offersrapid production of casting patterns from its production facilities worldwide.With expert teams who have been producing investment casting patterns for morethan 20 years, using additive platforms and materials that are being constantlyrefined and updated to meet ever more rigorous standards, On DemandManufacturing can meet your needs for prototype and production-grade castingpatterns.

3D printed patterns can be created quickly,and deliver more complex parts than can be created with injection molded waxpatterns. We use both a plastic process and a wax process depending on theneeds and applications of our customers.