Prototyping

Prototyping is a vital part of investment casting, as it allows you to review and analyse a part you have designed before beginning the full casting process. This is an essential part of reducing costs by eliminating the risk of an imperfect design going to production.

It also allows customers to test Design for Manufacture (DFM) suggestions that we may make to help you reduce the cost of your component.

Texmo Blank offers industry-leading prototyping timescales, achieved using innovative technology. Our fastest approach utilises 3D printing, which enables our engineers to accurately and efficiently create 3D physical prototypes from digital designs sent to us by our clients. Here you can find all of our prototyping options.

Rapid Prototyping

Texmo Blank has been offering a rapid prototyping service since 3D printing was first introduced to the investment castings industry. This method involves 3D printing an intricate wax or plastic model of the casting. Once reviewed and approved, these wax models are then used to make the ceramic mould for metal investment casting.

The great thing about this method is that other than printing the wax rather than injecting it in hard tooling, all other process steps are the same. This means that any destructive testing done on the metal casting produced from the RP wax will have the same mechanical properties as ones made in serial production out of hard tooling.

Rapid prototyping brings with it the opportunity for clients to save money on their prototypes as it removes the need to invest in tooling before the final design.

Wax Die Prototyping

Wax die prototyping takes longer than rapid prototyping as it requires an aluminium tool to be created for wax injection. Wax is then invested into this tool to create a prototype pattern for review. This pattern is then used to create the mould for metal casting. This is very similar to regular production tooling but it is highly simplified (i.e. single cavity, manual cores for creating undercuts, etc.).

We can make prototype tools for a fraction of the cost of production tooling, but as volumes scale into production, it will no longer be economical. This is why there must be a pivot to full scale production tooling once design is frozen.

Metal Prototyping

For an even faster solution, we can forgo the casting process all together. We can either machine prototypes from wrought material or print parts by laser sintering powder metals. The negative of this strategy is that the parts will differ drastically in microstructure and soundness from castings, so they will not be representative for mechanical properties in the cast state.

Which Type of Prototype Should I Choose?

• We recommend the rapid prototyping route if you want a handful of parts to review for feasibility studies, or simply ‘fit and function’ testing. The fact that no tooling is required speeds up the process significantly and allows for multiple iterations during prototyping, making it useful for product development.
• Wax die prototyping is more expensive and has longer lead times due to the required tooling, meaning it is less cost-effective for prototyping quantities below a certain threshold. However, it can be useful for prototyping at a larger scale.
• Each has its own benefits which are subject to customer requirements. Our sales team can assist with what would be the best fit for you.