Comparing Investment Casting and Continuous Casting: Everything you Need to Know

What is Investment Casting?

Investment casting is a manufacturing process where a wax pattern is used to shape a disposable ceramic mould. Its primary use is in the precision engineering of intricate metal components.

A large variety of materials are suitable for investment casting, with the most common examples being stainless steel alloys, aluminium and carbon steel. The hardness of the materials used enables the investment casting process to produce items with exceptional surface qualities and intricacies, which reduces the need for further machining.

Investment casting is used to accurately make small, precise parts with applications in a wide range of industries including automotive, aerospace, medical and industrial applications.

What is Continuous Casting?

In continuous casting, molten metal is drawn through a forming die while it is in the process of solidifying into the desired shape. The continuously cast item is then cut to its desired size and machined further.

Advantages of Investment Casting

• Can be used to cast a wide variety of ferrous and non-ferrous alloys.
• Low volume production runs are cheaper as tooling is less costly in comparison to other metal forming techniques.
• Can produce much more complex designs, incorporating design features such as logos.
• Parts require little machining after finishing.
• Excellent surface finishes can be achieved.

Advantages of Continuous Casting

• Reduces need for machining processes such as milling.
• Cost effective.
• Useful for small volume runs.

Disadvantages of Investment Casting

• Cycle times are much longer due to the nature of the process.
• Part size is limited by what can be securely gated to a tree.
• Dimensional accuracy is diminished with increasing part size.

Disadvantages of Continuous Casting

• Lacks the accuracy and precision of investment casting.
• Shaping is difficult.

Read more about Texmo Blank's investment casting capabilities.