DGI have experienced significant growth in demand for aluminium investment castings in the last few months. Aluminium has always been a relatively small part of the UK investment casting portfolio, most of the lost wax casting being in carbon and stainless steel and other non ferrous materials.
DGI have been developing the process for aluminium casting and results are now significantly improved. The quality of investment casting that is now achieved is consistent and of extremely good quality. Minor surface finish issues that were experienced from time to time have now been overcome with subtle changes to the process.
DGI can now offer a wide range of investment cast aluminium parts with full confidence that yield and quality will be as high as other materials that are cast.

Labels: investment casting, investment castings, lost wax process

Investment casting has been around for thousands of years and essentially, the technique is still the same today. A mould is produced in wax and this is "invested" into ceramic. Once the ceramic shell has been formed the wax is removed, usually with high pressure steam and this is where the term lost wax casting comes from. The process is then completed by firing the shell and pouring in the required material, removing the shell by vibration and shot blasting and applying any additional processes such as heat treatment, machining, plating or painting.

Labels: lost wax process

Internal labour costs continue to increase in the UK and many companies are looking to reduce costs by sub contracting simple assembly and packaging, and reducing their work force and overheads accordingly. Automation has been the other option to reduce the labour content but with the current credit crunch, FD's across the land are tightening the purse strings.
There is another simple and low cost option and that is to utilise our low cost sourcing partners, where the parts can be investment cast through the lost wax process, machined, plated and assembled under one roof- and they can be individually packed with part reference information as required.

Labels: investment casting, investment castings, lost wax process

Titanium has many excellent characteristics with strength similar to steel and weight benefits that make it ideal for the lost wax process, casting components for high tech applications. But it also has extremely good corrosion resistance properties which opens it up for off shore applications where components are in direct contact with salt water for prolonged periods of time.

Labels: lost wax process

DGI’s innovative new process for fabrication and sand casting is set to revolutionise the traditional UK fabrication and sand casting markets.
DGI’s commercial grade investment casting method offers many of the advantages of conventional investment casting but with far lower costs.
The new process has been used to great advantage within the commercial vehicle industry and is based on the investment casting or lost wax process, a relatively expensive but highly accurate form of casting parts in steel, iron or stainless steel and - parts that have been traditionally produced by cutting up sheet or plate steel to various sizes which are then fixtured and welded together can now be produced at costs similar to those of sand casting and the end product is free from weld splatter, sharp edges and burrs.
Until now, the options were either to fabricate or produce a low cost sand casting which would generally need machining to bring it in line with fit and function requirements. The new commercial grade investment casting process allows for complex shapes to be produced without the need for draft angles of tapers. Undercuts, internal pockets and thin sections are all possible without affecting the piece part price and the weight range is large - from 100 grams to 150 kilos – with castings of any size being possible.
Commercial grade IC is more accurate than sand casting and has a superior surface finish so that post machining is reduced. Because the part is cast, there is no waste material, there are fewer design constraints and design changes can usually be incorporated into the tooling at relatively low cost.
Each new casting design goes through DGI’s bespoke casting simulation package combined with their 3D CAD models and cosmos stress simulation to ensure that the best possible casting is achieved with added features such as weight relief, part numbers and company logos designed into the casting at no extra cost. The integrity of the part is assured and, because there is no welding involved, there is no potential for process variation from poor quality welds.
DGI is a family owned manufacturing and sourcing company with 35 years of knowledge and experience of servicing all types of industries including automotive, agricultural, industrial, hydraulic, construction, switchgear, transport, valves, lift equipment, architectural markets, defence, medical, electronics, ironmongery, leisure, transport, mechanical equipment and general engineering.
For more information on the ground-breaking new commercial grade investment casting, visit http://www.deangroup-int.co.uk/ or call 0161 775 1633

Labels: investment casting, lost wax process, sand casting