The mold opening cost of investment casting is surprisingly low!

[xuanxuan geng]

1. Introduction to the application of investment casting molds

Investment casting mainly has four major processes: wax making - shell making - casting - post-processing. Only after completing these four major processes can castings be produced. Later, other processes such as processing or surface treatment can be carried out according to customer requirements. And these four major processes can be specifically divided into more than 20 sub-processes. The specific process introduction can be learned in this article. "The process flow and production cycle of silica sol dewaxing casting"

The mold for Investment Casting we are going to introduce today is the mold used in the wax making process, that is, the mold for making wax wax molds. As shown in the figure below. It is not what everyone imagines, directly introducing the molten steel into the mold. The mold for investment casting does not contact the molten steel. Therefore, the mold material and production application difficulty of investment casting are relatively small. Compared with injection molds, forging molds, and powder metallurgy molds, it is simpler in material application.

2. Determination of the gating system before manufacturing the mold

Before developing and manufacturing the mold, the technical team needs to determine the design of the gating system. Because the confirmation of the gating system directly affects the confirmation of the pouring port position, as well as the confirmation of the corresponding wax stick of the product, and the structure of the wax stick has innovative changes, the foundry also needs to develop the wax stick mold simultaneously. These tasks must be confirmed before mold development, otherwise there will be a passive situation of technology and delivery during sample development.

According to statistics, more than 90% of casting errors are usually caused by errors in the design of the casting system, and only 10% are caused by out-of-control parameters during the design and production process. Using simulation casting software can timely discover many design errors, so as to modify the design or process parameters. This ensures that there will be no major problems in the production process of castings, and also prevents the high cost of incorrect casting. The so-called "trial and error" process has become history in foundries. This can save a lot of time and money, and can also optimize the casting process and casting quality very efficiently.

3. Manual mold VS automatic mold

Generally, our technical and sales teams will indicate manual molds and automatic molds, as well as the number of cavities in the quotation process.

Generally, we only provide customers with manual mold solutions in three cases

1) Products with complex structures that cannot be opened with automatic molds

2) Products with large sizes that cannot be opened with automatic molds

3) Products with small order quantities

Except for the above three special cases, we generally only provide customers with automatic molds, because automatic molds not only have a long life, but also have stable product quality and size, and are highly efficient, which can greatly shorten production delivery time, thereby greatly improving the quality of service to customers.

4. Precautions and optimization points for investment casting mold manufacturing

Based on our 20 years of mold production experience, the factory has certain standards for mold production. Here we give four examples.

1. The mold cavity surface should be equipped with nylon rods, which can protect the cavity surface from collision when opening and closing the mold, thereby extending the life of the mold.

2. The mold is nitrided to increase the mold hardness, slow down mold wear, and improve the quality stability of the wax mold.

3. The slider is positioned with an inclined guide column to reduce the number of pins to be pulled out and improve work efficiency.

4. The slider is used as a limit to avoid collision between the slider and the workbench, reduce mold loss, extend mold life, speed up mold loading, and improve production efficiency.

5. Starting price of investment casting mold

Silica sol investment casting, manual mold fee starts at 4,500 yuan (moderate structural difficulty, product 30g-1kg)

Silica sol investment casting, automatic mold fee starts at 6,000 yuan (moderate structural difficulty, product 30g-1kg)

Generally speaking, the life of manual molds is 50,000 molds, and the life of automatic molds is 500,000 molds. Combined with the advantages of automatic molds, we will give priority to customers to choose automatic molds, and automatic molds are also the choice of most customers.

Since the molds for investment casting are used for wax mold manufacturing, they are much cheaper than other industrial manufacturing molds in terms of cost. This is also a major advantage of the investment casting process, which can help customers develop new projects with relatively low development costs.