PCC

Investment Castings

Your Integrated Solution.

Overview

Why Investment Casting?

We leverage the diverse capabilities of our manufacturing facilities and that of our parent company, Precision Castparts Corp., to provide a total product solution.

Near net shape – for parts that normally require a lot of welding or fabrication, this process saves a great deal of labor and material.
Complex shapes – very little need for machining.
Hollow passages and thin walls can be easily achieved.
Flexible size range – up to 78 inches (200 cm).
Flexible alloy selection – steel, nickel-based superalloy, titanium, and aluminum.

Dimensional Capability
±0.003″	Small sections (such as blade or vane profiles)
±0.010″	Parts up to 2.00″
±0.020″	Parts up to 4.00″
Up to ±0.03″	Parts larger than 4.00″, with improvements in critical areas

From Prototype to Final Part

The Investment Casting Process

Step 01

Product Development

During the new product development phase, PCC uses state-of-the-art rapid prototyping technologies to reduce lead time and to provide the customer with design flexibility.

Stereolithography Assemblies (SLA) are typically used to cast parts for initial producibility testing when development timelines require maximum flexibility and minimal lead times.

Step 02

Wax Pattern Die

After the development phase, a tool (or wax pattern die) is designed and constructed to produce a wax reproduction (pattern) of the customer’s part when injected with specially formulated wax.

Wax pattern being dipped in ceramic slurry

Step 03

Investing

During investing, the wax pattern and attached gating system are dipped into a special ceramic slurry and coated with a fine-grain sand.

Step 04

Post-Investment

After investment, the mold (or shell) is heated in a pressurized vessel that causes the wax to liquefy and evacuate out of the mold.

The shell is now hollow and ready to be filled with metal.

Step 05

Raw Casting

The casting ingot of the specified alloy is then melted and poured into the mold to form the raw casting. Raw castings exit the furnace area for cooling and post-cast processing.

Step 06

Inspection

All castings are heat treated to obtain required mechanical properties.

In addition, they undergo numerous quality checks and nondestructive testing utilizing X-ray and ultrasonic techniques to ensure that the casting meets the customer’s quality requirements.

Step 07

Measuring

State-of-the-art Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) provide statistical information to control the process and ensure the part’s conformance to the customer’s dimensional requirements.