Investment casting occasionally called the Lost Wax process is a very good technique for producing complicated shapes in many metals and alloys. Surface finish is very good and in some situations complicated internal cores can be utilised.
Investment casting is usually the most expensive casting process but is able to give good tolerances. The process begins with the injection of wax into a die cavity.
This wax is then assembled onto a wax tree and subsequently coated in layers of ceramic slurry and dried. The wax is removed by Autoclaves and firing in an oven. The fired ceramics are then filled with the desired metal.
After cooling the ceramic is removed and discarded leaving a copy of the original wax injections.
