Investment Casting

Dean Group is proud to be a member of the Cast Metals Federation, an organisation that advocates for the UK casting industry. We are also BSI and ISO 9001:2015 accredited, showcasing that we operate at the highest international levels of quality and service provision. From ferrous to non-ferrous metals, and to other exotic metals, we can design and volume manufacture investment castings to a wide range of design specifications.

We have a well-managed sourcing operation in China and UK stock holding facilities to overcome extended lead times from overseas, enhancing our manufacturing capabilities.

What Are Dean Group’s Investment Casting Capabilities?

We offer a variety of investment casting techniques from our UK-based foundry in Manchester. We create castings designed to meet your specific requirements and the high standards of your industry. Our investment casting manufacturing capabilities include:

• The aluminium investment casting (ELITE) process allows for a range of part sizes and weights to be cast with excellent mechanical properties. It also produces parts with enhanced microstructure that are gas tight and there is also no need for ‘hipping’
• Our premium grade investment casting is suitable for several applications, including the manufacturing of complicated shapes that can’t be produced with other methods. This method can cast individual parts up to 30kgs with 1000 x 620 x 380 (mm) dimensions. It is highly accurate and consistent; perfect for both low and high-volume production.
• We also offer a commercial grade investment casting service, which offers design flexibility and good cast integrity. This process is ideal for larger and less intricate designs with capabilities to cast parts up to 100kgs. It is also best suited for medium to large volume runs with virtually no tool wear and overall reduced production costs.

At Dean Group, we have been providing specialised metalworking services, including lost wax casting since 1972. We pride ourselves on being able to tackle technically challenging projects and to supply you with the parts you need. We only use the highest quality materials and we inspect every product we manufacture.

We are happy to discuss your requirements, designs, our capabilities, help advise on the best manufacturing process for your needs or just tell you more about our metal casting foundry.

What is Investment Casting?

Investment castings, also known as lost wax castings, are formed by a traditional process, which has been used for centuries to produce detailed, intricate metal parts and components. Compared to other manufacturing methods, it is a cost-effective way of producing intricate products, providing significant design flexibility, with excellent dimensional accuracy and surface finish. Our foundry can cast with a wide variety of materials, although stainless steel, carbon steel and alloys for aluminium casting are the most common options.

The investment casting process uses a detailed wax pattern, produced from a master tool, which is then coated with a layer of refractory ceramic slurry to create a solid shell. The wax pattern is melted out, and the molten metal is poured into the shell. Once the metal has cooled and set, the shell is removed and the part can be finished and quality-checked.

Our expertise and precision casting systems ensure an outstanding level of accuracy at every stage, producing quality-assured pieces which meet all your requirements for strength, integrity and composition.

3D printing can be used to rapidly prototype the initial wax pattern, which can then be used for testing and validation before moving on to full-scale production.

What Are the Advantages of Investment Casting?

Investment castings have several advantages over other formed parts from processes such as sand casting and lost foam casting. Investment casting is ideally suited to smaller, more intricate designs and provides the precision necessary to incorporate logos, product IDs and numbers onto the surface.

Unlike sand casting, which requires breaking apart the mould to divest the pattern, the investment casting process results in a smoother surface with only a minor parting line. Investment casting generally does not need much in the way of secondary processing (polishing, trimming etc.). Investment casting uses hard refractory ceramic, creating finished parts with much tighter tolerances than sand casting. A summary of investment casting benefits can be seen below:

• Allows many intricate and complex forms to be cast. The repetitive close tolerances, intricate passages and contours allow for the most complex of forms to be created using investment casting. The same configurations are not possible when using machine tools to create parts
• The resulting parts are moulded in a single casting, therefore they have smooth surfaces with no parting lines.
• Alloys such as aluminum, bronze, magnesium, cast iron, carbon steel, and stainless steel can be used, as well as difficult to machine materials.
• Parts have good dimensional accuracy. Combining the materials in one casting is less complex than what is involved when welding or fabricating parts together to form a whole.
• Allows for both low and high-volume manufacturing.
• The cost of production is reduced since waste is minimal and it doesn’t require too much assembly.
• It’s also possible to add names, logos or numbers to the parts.
• 90-degree angles can be cast with no shrinkage allowance needed

What Are The Alternatives to Investment Castings?

Some factors that influence the choice of alternative to lost wax casting are size, weight, accuracy requirements and volume. Other considerations, like time to market or capital outlay for tooling, may also be important.

Investment casting is a flexible process, offering competitive production costs against relatively low tooling outlay, in the full range of materials and with low, medium and high volume production capabilities. Due to the tooling construction and manufacturing process, there is a high level of design flexibility and dimensional accuracy. This results in lower post-cast process costs.

What Other Services Are Available at Dean Group?

In addition to our investment casting, Dean Group are able to offer a selection of other services, including die casting, pressure die casting, metal injection moulding, and forging. This allows us to provide the most appropriate metalworking process for your project’s needs.

We can help with the design process, from the initial concept to 3D CAD, casting simulation, prototype, and sampling, to approved production. Alternatively, for existing parts, we can import existing CAD data to improve and manufacture your part.

Contact Dean Group for Your Investment Casting Quote

To find out more about our investment casting, or to get a quote for your project, please get in touch with us on 0161 775 1633 or submit your enquiry online.