Transforming Investment Casting Pattern Production
Digital processes and new additive manufacturing technologies are poised to deliver massive time and cost savings. Production workflows that now take weeks will be done in hours. Product runs can be smaller, serving more discriminating markets. Customers will place new expectations on foundries to deliver parts faster.
3D Systems continues to innovate solutions for investment casting that span 3D printers, software tools and build styles to fundamentally shift the pattern production economics to where the overall cost is consistently lower than tooling and wax.
Benefits of Adopting the Digital Foundry
Digital Manufacturing Using 3D Printed QuickCast® Patterns
3D Systems QuickCast solution is a digital manufacturing method for producing investment casting patterns. Using advanced software, stereolithography (SLA) or projection-based SLA (PSLA) 3D printing technology and materials, the resulting lightweight, hollow casting patterns are strong enough to resist deformation during the shelling part of the investment casting process. Though durable, these printed patterns successfully collapse under their own expansion to allow for complete drainage and burn out with virtually no ash residue. The result is fast production of high-quality patterns that are easy to handle and integrate into investment casting workflows. With QuickCast patterns, you can deliver easier to cast, complex patterns in hours or days – and eliminate the costs of tooling.
Remove Expensive and Time-Consuming Casting Steps with ArrayCast
With ArrayCast, users can effortlessly create customized casting trees, complete with configurable runners, sprues, and end effectors tailored to their workflow. Whether importing proprietary parts or leveraging our curated library of pre-designed components, every tree is digitally engineered for maximum productivity and repeatability.
Key benefits:
- Up to 10x faster production cycles by digitally assembling casting trees before printing begins, eliminating bottlenecks caused by manual processes
- Up to 20x reduction in manual labor hours through the use of fully assembled, 3D printed casting trees—no hand gluing or wax welding required
- Unmatched consistency and repeatability with a digital workflow that minimizes human error and ensures every tree meets exact specifications
Supporting Your Business Growth and Profitability with Industry Expertise
Investment casting is one of the world’s oldest manufacturing methods. Despite recent advances, it remains a manual process of pattern, mold, and casted part creation. Automation improvements in sprue assembly and shell building have streamlined mass production. Yet the requirement for tooling to deliver casting patterns is a barrier to fast part delivery and innovation. Digital processes and new investment casting technologies are poised to deliver massive time and cost savings. Workflows that took weeks can now be done in hours.
From the testing and iteration stages to the end-use metal components production, 3D Systems has developed advanced 3D printing solutions for scalable production of 100% wax or castable plastic patterns. These solutions offer a profitable way for foundries to achieve production-grade casted parts faster and more affordably than ever before, and to become increasingly responsive to customer requirements. 3D Systems’ digital foundry solutions eliminate the need for tooling to bring new agility and cost-effectiveness to investment casting pattern production and enable higher performing, more complex parts for casting in production volumes.
3D printed patterns are burned out into the standard investment casting process.
3D Systems 3D Printers and Materials
Our MJP and SLA 3D printers and materials deliver exceptional value, part accuracy, fast speed and production-grade casting patterns. Explore the options below to find the printer and material that's right for you.