EFFECTIVENESS OF PRIMECAST® AND PMMA ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES TO PRODUCE PATTERNS FOR INVESTMENT CASTING

Abstract

Investment casting produces parts that need little or no secondary machining operations. Wax patterns used for investment casting are typically produced through an injection moulding process with the accompanying tooling. However, cost and lead time to produce tooling can be high and complexity is limited by conventional machining ability. Additive manufacturing provides an alternative method for producing investment casting patterns that can provide dramatic time and cost savings. This paper reports on a study to determine the advantages and limitations of using PrimeCast® and PMMA patterns produced for investment casting by two different additive manufacturing technologies.