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3D Printer for Investment Casting

Enhance manufacturing precision and increase efficiency in investment casting with advanced 3D printing

Transforming Investment Casting Through Ceramic 3D Printing

Investment casting, especially for complex ceramic foundry cores like those used in turbine blades, is revolutionized with CERAM PRO ceramic 3D printers by Prodways. Traditionally, core production was labor-intensive and time-consuming, involving manual assembly. 3D printing streamlines this by directly printing intricate, porous cores in one step, reducing labor costs, minimizing waste, and improving precision.

This technology accelerates development cycles, shortens lead times, and offers greater flexibility in adapting core designs, all while lowering production costs and enhancing overall efficiency.

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Reduce costs and time: Direct 3D printing eliminates tooling and wax assembly.

Expand design possibilities: Create intricate geometries like turbine blades and cooling channels.

Optimize production: Enable small, custom runs of high-performance parts on demand.

Prototypes and Small Series

Achieve Superior Precision with DLP Ceramic 3D Printing

DLP technology enables high-precision ceramic molds and cores for investment casting using photopolymer ceramic resins. This layer-by-layer curing process creates complex geometries, such as cooling channels and turbine blades, that are impossible with traditional methods.

After firing, the molds achieve the necessary hardness for high-temperature alloys in aerospace, medical, and energy applications. By eliminating wax models and tooling, this method reduces production time, labor, and post-processing, making it ideal for small, customized runs of critical components.

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Investment casting materials

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SILICA SICAST 1200

Ceram Pro: The Ultimate Solution for Investment Casting

The Ceram Pro 3D printer series leverages advanced MOVINGLight® technology, delivering unmatched precision and reliability for investment casting applications.

With an open materials platform, the Ceram Pro series supports a variety of ceramic compositions, enabling customization based on specific application needs.

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Ceramic AM: Forming Some of the World’s Hardest Materials

This comprehensive guide explores significant advancements in ceramic additive manufacturing, featuring market analysis, industry insights, and exclusive case studies

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Investment casting is no longer limited to traditional and time-consuming manufacturing processes. With ceramic 3D printing, manufacturers can now create highly complex molds, patterns, and parts using advanced industrial technologies.

By using a 3d printer for investment casting, ceramic materials are shaped layer by layer through sla and stereolithography processes, eliminating the need for tooling, wax, plaster, or sand pattern assembly. This single step approach significantly reduces production time, overall cost, and operational costs, while maintaining high precision and surface quality.

Unlike traditional casting methods that rely on pmma, plastic, or wax to produce sacrificial patterns, ceramic printed molds are designed to withstand hot conditions and direct contact with molten metal, including aluminum. This enables the cast of intricate geometries with excellent surface finishes.

With open material platforms and dedicated printers, Prodways will support a wide range of investment casting services, from prototyping to low-volume production. This approach allows manufacturers to learn, iterate, and scale faster, while achieving low waste and optimized design freedom compared to other solutions or other legacy systems.

FAQ

What is a 3d printer for investment casting?

A 3d printer for investment casting is an industrial printer designed to produce ceramic molds and patterns directly from digital designs. It replaces traditional tooling, wax, and plaster-based processes, reducing time and costs.

What materials are best suited for investment casting with 3D printing?

The materials best suited for investment casting with 3D printing are ceramic-based materials and specialized resins designed to burn out cleanly without residue. These materials must withstand the thermal and mechanical stresses of the casting process, provide high dimensional accuracy, and deliver smooth surface finishes to ensure that the final metal parts are precise and defect-free.

How does the quality of the 3D print affect the final cast product?

The quality of the 3D print directly determines the quality of the final cast part. A high-resolution, precise print ensures that all the details of the pattern are accurately reproduced, resulting in exact molds and smooth surfaces on the metal parts. Conversely, any imperfections, layer lines, or dimensional inaccuracies in the print will appear on the final piece, potentially causing defects, poor surface finish, or the need for additional post-processing. With our Prodways Printers, we ensure this precision and consistency in every production, delivering final metal parts of superior quality.

How scalable is 3D printing for large-volume investment casting production?

3D printing with our Prodways Printers makes it easy to scale from small batches to full industrial production. Thanks to the combination of high precision, repeatability, and MOVINGLight® technology, we can consistently and efficiently produce complex ceramic patterns and molds, while reducing lead times and costs compared to traditional methods. This makes the technology perfectly suited for companies looking to scale their production without compromising on quality.