Investment casting

Investment casting is versatile, allowing for design and order volume flexibility. Investment casting is superior to other technologies for producing parts of any size with challenging tolerances, whether it be for 1 piece or 5,000 pieces. It is ideal for complex metal parts with thin wall sections and fine surface finishes.

We are able to cast your parts in a wide variety of alloys to enhance its performance, including stainless steels, low alloy steels, irons, and nickel base metals.

Investment casting process in 8 steps.

1. Wax pattern injection

2. Wax tree assembly

3. Shell building

4. Dewax / Burnout

5. Metal pouring

6. Shell knockoff

7. Cut-off

8. Individual castings

OUR INVESTMENT CASTING CAPABILITIES

High quality investment castings with surface finish Ra.1.6~3.2μm.

The lost wax investment casting process can create a variety of parts with excellent mechanical qualities. It generates gas-tight parts with improved microstructure and no 'hipping.'

Our investment casting can make complicated shapes that other technologies can't. This procedure can cast 30kg, 1000x620x380mm pieces. It's accurate and reliable for low- and high-volume production.

DS investment casting gives design freedom and cast integrity. This process may cast up to 25kg of larger, less complicated pieces. It's suitable for medium to high volume runs with minimal tool wear and low production costs.

We offer our customers high quality investment castings with surface finish better than 3.2 micron (up to 1.6 micron for special items) after lost wax precision casting process.

Materials & Usage of Stainless Steel Investment Castings

Excellent corrosion resistance

Alloy	Common Usage	Applications
304	Food grade steel, housings, bodies	Medical Mining Petrochemical
	304 is widely accepted in the food industry as the standard for cleanliness as well as corrosion resistance.
304L / 316L	Similar to other 300 series steel, the "L" stands for low carbon, making it softer but more corrosion resistant for each grade of material.	Food & Dairy Medical Petrochemical
316	Housings, gears, plates	Automotive Petrochemical Food & Dairy
	316 is known for its superior corrosion resistance, making it ideal for many uses including marine environments.
PH17-4	17-4 PH Stainless Steel Casting can withstand corrosive attacks better than any of the standard hardenable stainless steel castings and is comparable to Alloy 304 in most media.	Oil & Gas Marine Vessels Pulp and Paper Food & Dairy
	It is corrosion resistant in some chemical, petroleum, paper, dairy and food processing industries (equivalent to 304L grade).
1008 / 1018 / 1020 / 1045	Mild steel is a type of carbon steel with a low amount of carbon. It is actually also known as “low carbon steel.” Less carbon means that the steel is typically more ductile, machinable, and weldable than high carbon and other steels.	Construction Marine Vessels
4130 / 4140 / 40CrMo / 42CrMo	41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, they are excellent strength to weight ratio and are considerably stronger and harder than standard 1020 steel, but are not easily welded.	Military Transporation

Value-added Services from DS Foundry

To strengthen our investment casting services, we offer value-added services beyond casting blanks.

Engineering Service

Our engineers know what works in investment casting from years of expertise. Changing a part's design can save time and money. Such adjustments will increase your items' performance. We offer engineering and design help to make investment cast items easier and cheaper to make.

Our team will work with your product engineers to optimise part designs for cost-saving manufacture. We can make the casting process easier by discovering and eliminating design flaws. Optimized designs can reduce or eliminate the requirement for secondary procedures and material waste, saving production costs.

Machining Service

Our foundry makes exceptional investment castings, but for special products with tight tolerances, we must do machining operations like boring, drilling, facing, etc. Machining can be rough or precise. Rough machining uses boring machines, drilling machines, NC lathes, etc. Precision machining is needed when there is a tighter tolerance need; such precision dimensions and tolerances are done in CNC, hence precision machining costs more than rough machining.

DS foundry offers rough and precise machining services. Our team will provide the best solution to reduce machining time and expense.

Heat Treatment Service

Heat treatment is used to improve chemical and physical properties. Normalization, Tempering, Quenching, Case Hardening, Carbirizing, Quenching and Tempering, etc.

Our in-house heat treatment produces harder, tougher, more durable goods for our customers. Investment cast parts must be heat treated for exceptional endurance in harsh or caustic environments. Stronger products last longer. Many of our investment casting components are heat-treated to your specifications.

Surface Treatment Service

Investment castings are dipped in anti-rust water or oil before packaging to prevent corrosion. Investment castings are usually painted with oil/water anti-rust paint. Investment castings also use colour painting, powder coating, galvanisation, Electro polishing, etc. Each surface treatment has its own function or traits.

We offer post-treatments on-site or through approved subcontractors. More customers are benefiting from the extensive range of investment casting finishes.

Non-Destructive Testing Service

NDT is the most reliable means to inspect investment cast components. These tests don't affect the product's usefulness. Non-destructive testing allows our investment casting specialists to inspect your finished cast components without damaging or altering them.

Working with NDT testing businesses, we can reject defective products and supply high-quality goods Commony used DNT testing methods are: MPI (Magnetic Particle Inspection), UT (Ultrasonic Testing) , DPI (Dye Penetrant Inspection),ect.

Investment Casting Allows for a Surface Finish

The ceramic shell is composed of numerous layers to optimise cost, speed, and strength. The first layer applied is the face coat, and particle size dictates the finish at this stage. In following layers, the objective is to reinforce the shell.

The surface of the ceramic material is smoother due to its finer particles. In addition, they can better adapt to changes in surface geometry, which aids in the reproduction of fine detail.

Investment casting produces a smooth surface like milling. Skilled investment casting operations can achieve surface finishes of the order of 1.6 – 5.08 μm Ra (60 – 200 μin), and maintain 3.2 μm Ra (125 μin ) in most locations. As a reference, a good milled surface, one where the machining lines are just visible, has a finish of around 3.2 μm Ra (125 μin ). For comparison, a good surface finish from sand casting is 6.4 μm Ra ( 250 μin).

Main Pro’s of the Investment Casting

● Fine surface quality reduces lead times and machining costs.

● Superior production dimensions eliminate faults and waste.

● Supports precise details and complicated pieces for design freedom

● Easy defect detection and repair

● Very versatile, cast most shapes and metals.

● Prototypes before die casting tooling investment

Application of Stainless Steel Castings

● Food processing machinery: metal grinder and coffee machine components are cast in stainless steel.

● Valve & Pump Components: Stainless steel casting is most common. Valve bodies, discs, bonnets, glands, pump bodies, impellers, etc. are cast from stainless steel.

● Marine applications require strong, heat-, abrasion-, and corrosion-resistant stainless steel castings. DS foundry makes recreational, government, and commercial maritime components from stainless steel. Mirror-polished stainless steel marine castings withstand corrosion and abrasion.

● Our firm can electro polish and process marine-grade stainless steel investment castings, saving customers 30% on current costs.

● Pipe Fittings : Pipe fittings, connect, terminate, control flow, and change the direction of pipes in numerous industries. Pipe fittings are usually made of stainless steel 316, which is stronger and more corrosion-resistant than stainless steel 304. Small-volume stainless steel casting is cost-effective.

● Elbow, tee, bushing, close nipple, etc. are stainless steel cast fittings. Our machining can do threads.

● Medical equipment components: Stainless steel casting can make a variety of medical equipment components. We work with stainless steel 304(L), stainless steel 316(L), and more to manufacture unique parts for medical applications. We create stainless steel cast parts for dental & surgical tools, implantable components, operating tables & other OR equipment, MRI machines, X-ray equipment, stretchers, wheelchairs & related products, and more.

● Sculpture parts, bathroom & toilet fittings, door & windows, etc. are also stainless steel casting applications.