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    Investment Casting - Future Trends

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    shiva9113
    This document discusses future trends in investment casting. It begins by providing background on investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, as one of the oldest metal forming techniques dating back over 5,700 years. It then discusses how investment casting became an important modern industrial process in the late 19th century and was further advanced during World Wars and for aircraft parts. The document outlines key aspects of the investment casting process and discusses drivers for new technologies including demands for precision parts, specialized alloys, and reduced machining. It also covers topics like raw material costs and shortages, health and safety regulations, and predictions for greater automation and use of simulation and knowledge systems in the future industry.

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    Investment Casting - Future Trends

    Uploaded by

    shiva9113
    411 views25 pages
    This document discusses future trends in investment casting. It begins by providing background on investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, as one of the oldest metal forming techniques dating back over 5,700 years. It then discusses how investment casting became an important modern industrial process in the late 19th century and was further advanced during World Wars and for aircraft parts. The document outlines key aspects of the investment casting process and discusses drivers for new technologies including demands for precision parts, specialized alloys, and reduced machining. It also covers topics like raw material costs and shortages, health and safety regulations, and predictions for greater automation and use of simulation and knowledge systems in the future industry.

    Original Description:

    What is the scope of investment casting in future and the trends in future.

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    This document discusses future trends in investment casting. It begins by providing background on investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, as one of the oldest metal forming techniques dating back over 5,700 years. It then discusses how investment casting became an important modern industrial process in the late 19th century and was further advanced during World Wars and for aircraft parts. The document outlines key aspects of the investment casting process and discusses drivers for new technologies including demands for precision parts, specialized alloys, and reduced machining. It also covers topics like raw material costs and shortages, health and safety regulations, and predictions for greater automation and use of simulation and knowledge systems in the future industry.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    411 views25 pages

    Investment Casting - Future Trends

    Uploaded by

    shiva9113
    This document discusses future trends in investment casting. It begins by providing background on investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, as one of the oldest metal forming techniques dating back over 5,700 years. It then discusses how investment casting became an important modern industrial process in the late 19th century and was further advanced during World Wars and for aircraft parts. The document outlines key aspects of the investment casting process and discusses drivers for new technologies including demands for precision parts, specialized alloys, and reduced machining. It also covers topics like raw material costs and shortages, health and safety regulations, and predictions for greater automation and use of simulation and knowledge systems in the future industry.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 25
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    Investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting, is an ancient metal-forming technique dating back over 5700 years. It was initially used to make idols, ornaments, and jewelry but has since evolved into a modern industrial process used to manufacture precision metal parts, especially for aerospace applications.

    Some of the early historical uses of investment casting included making idols, ornaments, and jewelry using beeswax patterns and clay molds. It was widely used in Europe until the 18th century when piece molding became more common.

    Investment casting evolved to meet increasing demands for precision parts that couldn't be made through traditional methods during World War II and the jet engine revolution. It has since expanded globally to produce aircraft engine and airframe components.

    Future Trends in

    Investment Casting

    Investment casting is an industrial process based

    on and also called lost-wax casting, one of the oldest


    known metal-forming techniques.
    Conservative Carbon 14 estimates date the items to
    c. 3700 BCE, making them more than 5700 years old.
    Its earliest use was for idols, ornaments and jewellery,
    using natural beeswax for patterns, clay for the
    moulds and manually operated bellows for stoking
    furnaces.
    Lost-wax casting was widespread in Europe until the
    18th century, when a piece-moulding process came to
    predominate.
    Investment casting came into use as a modern
    industrial process in the late 19th century, when
    dentists began using it to make crowns and inlays

    In the 1940s, World War II increased the demand for

    precision net shape manufacturing and specialized


    alloys that could not be shaped by traditional
    methods, or that required too much machining.
    Industry turned to investment casting.
    The adoption of jet propulsion for military and then for
    civilian aircraft that stimulated the transformation of
    the ancient craft of lost wax casting into one of the
    foremost techniques of modern industry.
    Investment casting expanded greatly worldwide
    during the 1980s, in particular to meet growing
    demands for aircraft engine and airframe parts.
    Today, for example investment casting is a leading
    part of the foundry industry, with investment castings
    now accounting for 15% by value of all cast metal
    production in the UK and 7% by value in the world.

    Overview of Investment Casting

    First step is to produce Master Pattern and or Master Die.


    Selection of Pattern Material. Wax, Plastics, Urea based

    Patterns.
    Next Production of Pattern in injection molding.
    Next Pattern Assembly.
    Production of ceramic Shell. Silica, zircon, alumina and
    various aluminum silicates are commonly used
    refractories for both slurry and stucco in making ceramic
    shell molds.
    Next is removal of pattern or dewaxing.
    Next is mold firing and burnout.
    Next is melting metal in furnace.
    Pouring metal into shell.
    Removal of Shell.
    Fettling and further machining.

    Drivers for Technology


    Historically inventions have taken many years before

    they have been commercially viable


    Although the time taken to introduce many common
    products to market was extraordinarily long, the rate at
    which investment castings were developed was, by
    contrast, exceptionally fast.
    Not only did the aero companies embrace the process
    but many small entrepreneurs took up the challenge
    and during the 1950s and 1960s many small foundries
    were formed to exploit the process for commercial
    applications. However, the main driver for development
    was the jet engineand industrial gas turbine.

    Environment

    Shell Moulds
    The environmental protection act of 1990 for the
    control of air pollution in developed countries.
    HES was discontinued and silica sol binder was
    used in conjunction with newly developed
    polymer additives.
    Shortage of refractive materials periodically and
    impurities in them and disposal of zircon
    promoting research into new refractory
    materials.
    Crystalline silica is carcinogen so silica is
    increasingly regulated.
    With increasing raw material and disposal costs

    Alloys
    The price of superalloys for gas
    turbines and turbochargers depends
    on availability of raw materials.
    Rhenium, which is an essential metal
    for single crystal alloys has seen
    eight fold increase since 2000s.
    Until recently virgin alloy has been
    preferred but increasing cost has
    forced the foundries into using
    recycled material.

    Engine Efficiency
    To improve the engine and fuel efficiency it is necessary to run the

    turbine at the highest temperature possible, this leads to both alloy


    and cooling design development.
    Weight is also a very important aspect of aero-engine design and
    this leads to the development of lightweight high temperature
    materials and thin section components.
    The quest for lighter engines has led to the development of the
    titanium aluminide intermetallics; for example the TNB alloys
    Super alloys were developed for their high temperature creep
    properties but had the disadvantage of being very difficult to
    solution heat treat.
    To increase further the temperature capability has led to the
    development of alloys containing platinum group metals, in
    particular ruthenium which had the advantage of increasing
    strength, improving heat treatability. These alloys are now generally
    referred to as 4th generation single crystal alloys.

    Costs
    Production costs are continually under review, in particular

    the automotive industry is constantly improving its cost


    base.
    The centre sprue of the tree is directly reused for the
    alloy melting stock.
    Opportunities for the re-use of shell material is frequently
    under consideration by research Organizations.
    Automation is well established for shell moulding and
    many finishing operations. Robotic handling significantly
    improves the process consistency and reduces labour
    costs. Recent developments by Mueller Phipps Inc. have
    included the concept of automated wax assembly which is
    ideally suited for high volume commercial parts.

    Process Development
    Furnace
    Most process development is related to furnace design. This is
    led by the requirements for large Industrial gas turbine aero
    foils cast as DS or single crystals and cost reduction through
    improved cast quality and volume of parts per furnace cycle.
    Single crystal castings owe their high strength to their ability
    to be fully heat treated and the absence of grain boundaries.
    On the debit side, single crystals suffer from all the defects
    associated with equiax castings plus those associated with DS
    plus those specific to single crystals.
    Many of these defects can be reduced with good furnace
    technology.
    In recent times liquid metal cooling has been developed for
    very high gradient solidification.

    These furnaces include a bath of liquid

    aluminium or tin in which the casting is slowly


    immersed immediately after casting.
    Other furnace developments for DSX include
    the use of donut chills in which blades are
    placed on a chill ring with a centre chill to
    increase the temperature gradient and
    combination furnaces which can be used for
    either directional solidification or equiax
    casting.
    Recently University of Birmingham developed
    CRIMSON Method for reduction of Energy
    Consumption in Investment Casting Process
    by application of this new Casting Facility.

    Direct Patterns (Rapid Prototyping)


    Over 100,000 patterns were produced in the USA by rapid
    prototyping in 2007 of which 50% were for production
    standard castings.
    There are a number of established processes e.g.
    Stereolithography, Selective Laser Sintering(SLS),
    Thermojet, Solidscape etc. Of these the most popular in
    Europe is a wax impregnated SLS marketed as Castform.
    Complexity of the objects made it impossible to use milling
    in its fabrication. IC was selected as the method of
    fabrication, however cost and time constraints in addition to
    the accuracy, repeatability, and the limited number of units
    required deviation from conventional techniques used in IC.
    The advantage of this approach is the rapid pace at which
    the parts could be created using the CAD/CAM technology
    and its support to the freeform designs.
    This process ensures the reusability of the SL pattern for
    future requirements, and working off the same master
    pattern improves the repeatability apart from the overall

    Process simulation
    Process modeling to simulate mould fill and
    solidification has become an established aid for
    Manufacture.
    Fully integrated systems which use process
    modeling to assist with wax impression and core
    tooling design, gating system design and the
    definition of casting parameters have yet to be fully
    implemented but remain a distinct possibility for the
    future.
    Rapid advancements in the solidification software
    show continual improvement in the ability to predict
    accurately many grain defects that can occur in the
    production of directionally solidified, DS, or single
    crystal components.

    Future Influences on the Investment


    Casting Industry- Some Predictions
    Raw materials will become increasingly expensive

    and in some cases the earths limited resources will


    restrict their use without effective recycling. This
    will be increasingly true of metallic elements such
    as rhenium.
    Shortages of non metallic raw materials will cause
    the industry to investigate alternative materials
    Health and safety regulations will place increasing
    demands on manufacturing and may restrict the
    use of materials currently in common use.
    Engineering demands will place greater emphasis
    on dimensional control and geometric complexity.

    Cost consciousness will increase demands for

    less human involvement and greater


    automation.
    Increasing computing power and knowledge
    base systems such as neural networks will
    beincreasingly important to the industry. It is
    possible to envisage a future foundry where
    the process is defined by knowledge systems
    and controlled by expert systems cognisant
    with defect detection and correction. The
    factory would be self learning and self
    correcting with limited human interaction.
    In the meantime the investment casting
    industry will continue to grow and remain one
    of the essential strategic industries for the

    Thank You

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