The Investment Casting Process – How It Works and Its Advantages

Learn All About Custom-Machined Forging and Casting Solutions with LeanWerks Precision Manufacturing & Engineering

CNC machined investment castings are one of the many industrial manufacturing solutions that we provide at LeanWerks. This complex casting solution begins with custom, precision-made patterns. The pattern is then “invested” (or surrounded) with a specialized wax or other refractory material in order to create a mold. Molten metal (or other manufacturing materials such as glass and ceramics) are then poured into the mold to create a quality casting, which is a precise duplicate of your custom component design.

A Brief History of Investment Casting and Lost-Wax Casting

The modern investment casting process has its roots in traditional lost-wax casting, a metal-forming method that has been utilized for at least 5,000 years of human history. Its close relation to lost-wax casting makes investment casting one of the oldest, most tried-and-true production techniques in the metalworking industry. Essentially, lost-wax casting is a simpler form of investment casting dating back more than 6,000 years. The process has been traditionally used to duplicate metal sculptures from custom beeswax molds. The modern industrial world of investment casting is a bit more complex, obviously. Today, the process utilizes far-more advanced refractory materials and precision CNC-machined patterns to ultimately produce complex parts with micrometer close tolerances.

The Advantages of Investment Casting

• Versatile size range for your custom-designed patterns and components.
• Capable of reliably producing parts with extremely intricate shapes with complex geometries.
• Produces smooth surface finishes that offer a premium aesthetic.
• Extremely close-tolerance dimensional accuracy as precise as +/- .01mm.

LeanWerks Is Your Single Source for Precision American Engineering Solutions

At LeanWerks, we offer application-specific ingenuity through all of our custom-machined forging and casting solutions. From prototyping to machined investment casting to billet machining services, we provide superior engineering and manufacturing capabilities certified to AS9100D, ISO 9001:2015 and DDTC/ITAR quality standards.