DESIGN

CONSIDERATION FOR
INVESTMENT CASTING

Introduction

Investment casting uses a piece of

ceramic mould.

The mould is prepared by surrounding

the ceramic material over the wax or
plastic pattern.

Once the ceramic material solidifies, the

wax replica is melted and drained out
from the mould and the metal is poured

Steps in investment casting

Figure 1: Steps in investment casting

Types of investment casting

process

Solid mould
In the solid mould process the pattern is placed into a container and
mould material poured around the pattern and allowed to solidify to make
the solid block.

Ceramic shell mould

The pattern is dipped into ceramic slurry. Pattern is taken out from the
slurry and rotated to produce a uniform coating. Further, the coating is
allowed to dry and the dipping process repeated over several times. As a
result, multiple coat forms a hard ceramic shell mould. The mould is again
placed in an oven to drain out the wax so as to create the mould cavity.

Pattern materials

Patterns used for investment casting are

injection

moulded

of

either

wax

or

plastic.

Paraffin and microcrystalline waxes are

the most common base material for
patterns.

Typical characteristics and applications

Characteristics

features

casting are:

Intricate shape

Close tolerances

Small size

High strength alloys

of

investment

Applications of investment casting are:

Contoured

surfaces,

undercuts,

other

intricate shapes, places where machining is

difficult or unfeasible.

Typical

examples

of

such

mechanical

components are: sewing machines, firearms,

surgical and dental devices, turbine blades,
gear impeller, hand tools, cranks and levers.

General design
considerations

Since patterns are injection moulded, a

good practice must be followed for
injection moulded parts.

Investment casting include the use of a

well located pattern, straight parting
line, adequate draft and avoidance of
undercuts, generous radii and fillets.

Suitable material for investment casting

A wide variety of materials such as both ferrous

and non-ferrous can be used in investment
casting.

Any metal that can be melted in standard

induction furnace or vacuum furnace can be
considered for this case.

Difficult to machine materials are also good

candidate for investment casting.

Table1: Suitable material for

investment casting.
Material

Fluidity

Shrinkage

Resistance
to hot
tearing

Castability
rating

Carbon steels
1040 (G10400)

B+

1050 (G10500)

B+

Alloy steels
2345(G23450)

A-

4130(G41300)

A-

Nickel alloys
Monel (QQ-N288-A)
(N04020)

B+

Inconel 600
(AMS 5665)
(N06600)

B+

A -Excellent; B - good; C- poor

Table1: Suitable material for investment

casting.
Material

Fluidity

Shrinkage

Resistance
to hot
tearing

Castability
rating

Cobalt alloys
Cobalt 21
(R30021)

A-

Cobalt 31
(R30031)

A-

Aluminum Alloys
A 356 (A13560)

A+

C 355 (A33550)

Tool steels
A-2 (T30102)

B+

H-13 (T20813)

B+

B+

Copper alloys
Gunmetal
(C90500)

Detail design
recommendations
The following important design guidelines are
recommended for investment casting.

Minimum wall thickness:

The minimum thickness of casting wall is

primarily dependent upon the fluidity of the metal

to cast and the length of the section involved. If
the section is long, heavier wall may be required.

Table 2: Suggested Minimum Wall Thickness for

Various Investment-Casting Metals.
Metal

Minimum wall thickness(mm)

Ferrous metals

Low-carbon steel

1.8

High-carbon steel

1.5

Low-alloy steel

1.5

Stainless steel, 300 Series

1.0

Stainless steel, 400 Series

1.5

Cobalt-base alloys

0.75

Nonferrous metals
Aluminum

1.0

Beryllium copper

0.75

Brass

1.0

Bronze

1.5

Detail design
recommendations

Flatness and straightness:

Deviations from flatness and straightness can be minimized by
incorporating ribs and gussets in the parts. Also, due to
occurrence of shrinkage there is a tendency to develop a dish
(concave) shape instead of flat surface. This can be minimized by
designing parts with uniform wall thickness.

Figure 2: Keep walls uniformly thin to avoid dishing.

Radii:
Even though use of sharp corners is possible by this method,
generous radii are preferred. Better quality and more accurate
parts can be produced by providing ample fillets and radii. A
minimum of 0.75mm fillet radius need to be furnished. However, a
radius of 1.5 to 3 mm is preferable.

Figure 3:Use generous fillets and radii.

Curved surfaces:
Both concave and convex surfaces are possible to
cast in this category. Generally concave surfaces
can be cast with greater accuracy.

Parallel sections:
Parallel sections can be classified into two
geometric categories namely: forks or yokes and
clamp or pinch collars.

In case of fork, as the thickness t

increases, the width of the opening w
also must increase.

Figure 4: Forks and yokes have minimum practical slot widths.

The recommended minimum slot width w

for clamps with ferrous and nonferrous
metals are 1.5, and 1 mm respectively.

Figure 5: Recommended minimum slot widths W for clamps and pinch collars
are 1.5 mm for ferrous metals and 1.0 mm for non-ferrous metals.

Keys and key ways:

The ratio of width (W) to depth (D) for ease
of casting of keys and keyways are kept 1 or
more. Recommended minimum key width
which can be cast is 2.3mm and 1.5mm for
ferrous and non-ferrous metals respectively.

Figure 6: Keys and keyways should have a width to-depth ratio of 1:1 or

Holes:
Whenever holes are to be incorporated a
minimum size (diameter) must be greater than or
equal to 1.5mm and 2.2 mm for nonferrous and
ferrous alloys respectively are to be used.

Blindholes:
In general, blind holes are not recommended for
casting. If it is inevitable, the depth of the hole
should not exceed the diameter.

Through holes:
Tolerances for blind holes and through holes are same.
L/D ratio should not exceed 4:1 and 5:1 for ferrous
and copper & aluminum respectively.

Ceramic cores:
In the design of pattern mould, if any intricate internal
configuration (example internal thread) has to be
made with a ceramic core then provision must be
provided in the mould to support the ceramic core the

Draft:
To remove wax pattern from the mould a small amount
of draft is provided to the pattern. The recommended
values lie in the range between 1/4 to 1/8 .

Figure 7: A small amount of draft is necessary for the removal of patterns

from the moulding die.

Screw threads:
Both internal and external threads can be
investment

casted.

But

it

is

not

usual

recommended practice.

Undercuts:
Even though undercuts doesnt create any problem
to the casting operation but has significant effect in
pattern moulding operation and hence this has to be
avoided.

Dimensional factors:
The most significant factor influencing the dimensional
accuracy of investment casting is the shrinkage of the
materials used. Some degrees of shrinkage are there
in all levels: wax pattern, investment material and cast
material. The normal shrinkage allowance provided for
shell mould and flask mould method are 1.6 to 1.7 %
and 1.1% respectively.

Other factors adversely affecting

dimensional control are:

Temperature variations in pouring

Fluidity of the metal used

Pattern

and

pattern-mould

dimensional

variations

Pattern distortion during handling

Investment-mould cracks and other variations

Wax shrinkage and sag over a period of time

Recommended tolerances for various angles, general

dimensions, roundness and flatness are provided:

Figure 8: Recommended tolerances for angles: (a) angular openings as A

(1.5); (b) angular shapes as B (0.5); (c) parallelism (2.0)

Table 3: Recommended tolerances for

angles
Dimension(mm)

Recommended tolerances(mm)
Normal

Tight

Up to 6

0.4

0.08

613

0.4

0.10

1325

0.4

0.13

2550

0.4

0.18

50100

0.8

0.40

100150

1.1

0.60

Over 150

1.5

0.80