Investment Casting Foundry Practice
G. M. Rajendra Prasad
A/14, K. H. B. Colony, Puttenahalli
Yelahanka, Bangalore – 560 106.
Email : gmrpsbc@gmail.com
Let me confess at the outset that I am totally ignorant of
the Science of Investment Casting.
We have been able to develop investment casting, on
our own, by trial and error method. We do not even know
if what we have done is conventional or not. I have not
even seen an Investment Casting Foundry.
The process that we have followed has given us
results. Ours is a sand cast foundry, where we make all
kinds of steel & alloy steel castings. We developed
investment castings, on the side lines, for our sister
concern which manufactures pumps, to reduce great deal
of machining at their end.
Excepting a wax injection machine for pattern making
and a stirrer, we did not have any other facility for
investment casting.
I would like to caution those people, who want to start
an exclusive investment casting unit, to ensure that
they have all the required equipments for an investment
castings foundry.
Materials : The materials we used were : Colloidal Silica
(30%), Godrej EZEE Soap Solution, NAV Antifoam
Solution, -325# Fused Quartz, 150# Fused Quartz,
100# Fused Quartz, 70# Fused Quartz, 60# Mullite,
40# Mullite, 30# Mullite, 16# Mullite, Investment Casting
pattern Wax.
Addresses and/or other contact details of companies
from whom we procured these materials are given at the
end of the article. The other things we used were wax
pattern injection machine, a motorized stirrer, an electrical
resistant heating furnace and a vessel to treat the shells
in boiling water.
Preparing Wax Patterns & Tree
Prepare your wax pattern and attach it to central sprue.
Between the pattern and the central sprue bar an
adequately sized cylindrical wax rod (not longer than 10
mm) is provided. The wax rod’s diameter depends on the
casting size. It acts as a feeder to the casting. Ensure
that proper venting is provided for air to get out of shell
before molten metal fills the shell. To this central sprue
bar several patterns can be attached. Now you have wax
tree ready for further processing.
FOUNDRY
Processing Steps
a) Preparing Coating Slurry
1. Take 4.5 liters of Colloidal Silica.
2. To this, add 7.5 kgs of -325# Quartz Flour.
3. Mix it with the stirrer for 30 minutes.
4. Add 4 drops of godrej EZEE soap liquid. (This is a
wetting agent.)
5. Mix it for 30 minutes. During this process lot of foam
will be generated, and it has to be removed.
6. Add 50 ml of NAV Antifoam solution.
7. Mix it for 30 minutes.
8. Now the coating material is almost ready, but you
need to manually remove few air bubbles still present,
along with foreign material, if any. Now your coating
slurry is ready.
b) Preparing Shells
9. Dip the wax pattern tree in slurry.
10. Stucco it immediately with 150# fused quartz.
Now, what is this “stuccoing”?
Whenever you have to paint a wall or a door, you
first rub (?) the surface with sand paper or emery
paper.
Why do you do that?
Imagine a smooth surface, and a surface with
scratches. Surface with scratches will have greater
surface area. This helps in better adherence of
paint on the surface. But in case of our shell, slurry
is as smooth as Talcum Powder, and Wet. So we
sprinkle 150# fused Quartz Flour onto the wet
slurry coat. This flour adheres to wet slurry surface.
In case of a wall, we had scratches, depression,
which increased the total surface area, and in case
of our Shell we have projections of 150# quartz
flour on -325# slurry. This also increases total
surface area.
11. Allow the Shell to dry for 8 hours in normal condition
(first coat). Probably one could hasten drying by using
infra-red heat, but I do not know about it.
12. After 8 hours of drying, dip the shell in -325# slurry,
and stucco with 100# fused quartz (2nd coat).
JULY/AUGUST, 2010
13. Allow it to dry for 8 hours.
Before each time you dip the shell in slurry, stir the
slurry once to ensure that dispersal of -325# fused
quartz is uniform in colloidal silica.
• Our coating slurry is always of -325# fused quartz.
• Our Stucco material size changes.
14. Same steps get repeated with 70# fused quartz or
mullite (which is cheaper).
15. Stucco with 50# mullite.
16. Stucco with 30# mullite.
17. Stucco with 16# mullite.
After each coating operation, 8 hours of drying is
necessary. For smaller Castings, about 6 or 7
coatings are adequate. For bigger castings, you
need more number of Coats to get a stronger shell.
In case of more number of coats, stucco material
will be 16# mullite.
Now, after all the coatings, shell is ready for
dewaxing.
c) Dewaxing the Shells
18. Make a Stand in such a way (with an opening) that
your shell can be kept upside down. Keep a container,
with water in it, under the shell.
19. Start heating the shell with LPG gas flame. Wax melts
and falls into water, so that no wax gets burnt out.
20. After you have ensured that all the wax has melted
and come out, continue to heat the Shell.
Why (Continue to heat the shell)?
Even though all the wax has melted and come
out, a layer of carbonaceous material is still
adhering to the inner surface of the shell. As you
go on heating the shell, air inside the shell expands
and comes out of the shell, and fresh air enters
the shell. Oxygen of the air reacts with
carbonaceous material, and becomes carbon
dioxide, and comes out of the shell. Keep heating
the shell till no fumes come out of the shell. Ensure
that you are heating casting portion more than the
other portions. Now if you break open one shell,
you will see milky white inner surface rather than
black surface.
Use of Oxygen : In case of castings with larger
surface area, the entire carbonaceous layer did
not get burnt out. So, we let a stream of oxygen
into the shell (which is being heated from outside)
at a very low pressure. This resulted in burning of
carbonaceous layer. On breaking of the shell, its
inner surface was found white. As regards to ‘How
long’ oxygen has to be passed, depends on
surface area of the casting.
FOUNDRY
21. Wax has ash in it. Fresh wax will have less of ash
and used wax will have more. This ash is still adhering
to the inner surface of the shell. It has to be removed.
This is done by putting the shells in boiling water.
Because of the turbulence, boiling water enters the
shell and removes ash adhering to the inner surface.
As regards to the time of keeping the shell in the
boiling water, keep it till no foreign matter coming
out of the shell is seen.
Take out the shell from water and allow it dry for 8
hours. Now your shell is ready for pre-heating before
pouring molten metal into it.
d) Shell Pre-heating and Metal Pouring
22. Put your shells in an electrical resistance furnace,
and heat the shells to about 950 °C.
23. Take out the shells about 3 to 5 minutes before
pouring molten metal.
24. Place the shells on a sand bed, cover the shell with
dry sand to ensure that shell does not lose heat.
During all this, ensure sprue opening is covered, so
that nothing falls into the shell.
25. Just before pouring molten metal, remove the Lid
(kept over the sprue opening).
26. Pour the molten metal into the shell.
27. Take out the shell from the dry sand cover, and allow
it cool to about 250 °C in natural atmosphere.
28. Break the shell without damaging the castings.
29. Cut the feeder (attachment to central sprue) and
vents.
30. Grind the cut portion without damaging the as-cast
surface of the casting.
31. Now, get your Investment Casting sand blasted (not
shot-blasted, as it leads to dent marks on the
casting).
Now your Investment Casting is ready!
Notes
a) How much of Colloidal Silica (binder) is to be used
depends on your casting size. (Refer to step 1)
b) How long Oxygen gas has to be passed depends
on surface area of the casting. Larger the surface
area, longer is the time of passing oxygen. (Refer
to step 20)
c) How long the Shell should be kept in boiling water
depends on surface area of the casting. Do not
keep it longer than required. (Refer to step 21)
What is this “required”?
When you do not see any foreign matter coming
out of the shell, it (i.e. the shell) can be taken out
of boiling water.
JULY/AUGUST, 2010
 Contact Details of the Suppliers
Addresses of the suppliers of materials, from whom we
procured the materials, are given below:
1. Colloidal Silica (30%)
Dr. Khan Industrial Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
S-6, Ratnamanjusha, Ravi Industrial Compound
Naupada, Thane - 400 602 (Maharashtra).
Cell : 91-932789806
Emails : dkic@colloidalsilica.com, dkic@vsnl.net
2. Fused Quartz
The Universal Fused Quartz & Allied Products Pvt. Ltd.
Bangalore.
Email : ufq_fusil@hotmail.com
Contact Person : Shri Shankar Prasad
3. Pattern Wax
M/s. Saffroshine Organics Pvt. Ltd.
C-73, MIDC, Chincholi, Solapur - 413 255.
Phone : (0217) 235 7272, Cell : 91-98901 97600
Contact Person : Shri Rajesh Zade
Email : info@saffroshine.com
4. NAV Antifoam
M/s. Navya Refractory Products, Bangalore.
Email : nutan_ind_pr@sify.com
Earlier we were using nOctonal liquid from Merck,
paying Rs. 2200 per litre; but later changed over to
NAV Antifoam, which is priced at Rs. 250 per litre.
As regards to performance of removal of foam, I
did not find any difference.
5. Mullite
M/s. Bajaj Associates, Bangalore.
Phone : (080) 2228 1141, 2287 0369
Email : bajajmullite@airtelbroadband.in
6. Wetting Agent
Godrej EZEE Soap Solution, which is easily available in
the market.
7. Investment Casting Equipments
Such of those people who want to get into investment
casting in a big way, you cannot do it the way we did. We
did it on the side lines. For investment casting equipments,
please contact :
Incasst Machines, Hebbal Indl. Area, Mysore - 570 018
Contact : Shri Vivek Sangle (Mobile : 91-97411 22101)
Email : incastt@gmail.com
Visit : www.incastt.com
• Foundry is an Old Art, but Young Science.
• Investment casting is almost 3000 years old.
• The Metallic Sculpture of Dancing Nataraja was made by this Process.
FOUNDRY
Zircon Vs. Fused Quartz
If you can get 150# zircon and 100# zircon, use
these for 1st & 2nd stucco. From 3rd stucco
onwards it is 70#, 50#, 30# & 16# mullite.
We used fused quartz because of non-availability
of zircon. This is an option. When your slurry itself
is 325# fused quartz, stuccoing with fused quartz
should not matter.
You can also use -325# zircon flour for basic
coating, 200# zircon for first stucco, 150# zircon
for second stucoo, and 100# zircon for third stucco.
Thereafter go for Mullite Stucco – 70#, 50#, 30#
and 16#.
I have explained the process. If you want to start making
investment castings, you will have to establish process
parameters for your condition.
Remarks : When I started surfing the NET for information
on Investment Casting, I got many other information,
but not an IOTA of information on Investment Casting
process details. Then I decided that I will share this
information and our experience by publishing it in
FOUNDRY magazine so that my fellow countrymen get
benefitted.
Before I end my paper, as I have already stated in the
beginning, I still do not know the Science of Investment
Casting. This I am saying just to tell you that if you put
your heart and soul into it, you can improvise the process
a great deal. Good Luck!
Acknowledgement : I would like to express my deep
sense of gratitude to Shri Babu Sathian, Mg. Dir. of
M/s. Process Pumps (India) Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Allcast
Industries, Bangalore, for having permitted me to prepare
& present this small Paper.
JULY/AUGUST, 2010