Comparing Investment Casting and Die Casting: Everything you Need to Know
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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 Die Casting?
In die casting, reusable metal dies are used instead of the disposable ceramic moulds of investment casting. Often used for non-ferrous metals (aluminium, copper, tin) die casting moulds metals under high pressure. Molten metal is poured into a hardened tool steel die, which is created by machining. Once poured into the die, the molten metal solidifies into the casted part.
What usually sets investment casting apart from die casting is the fact investment casting can be used with a large amount of ferrous materials, and is often a far more cost effective option without sacrificing quality.
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 Die Casting
- Excellent dimensional accuracy.
- Part size is less restricted, but tooling costs can be prohibitive.
- Cycle times are very short and the process can be completely automated.
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 Die Casting
- Tooling costs are far higher, only cost effective for very large volumes.
- The parts produced are usually less complex.
- More material limitations, can’t be used for ferrous alloys.
- Surface finishes are usually lower quality than IC and require additional processing.
Further Information
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