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Investment Casting

EDL began manufacturing investment castings in 1990, benefiting from recent improvements in the process such as shell moulding and the introduction of water based ceramic coatings. With a steady investment in plant and process control systems the business has grown steadily, providing a diverse range of market sectors with precision castings.

Whilst most of the current work carried out by EDL is aerospace castings, there is the capability within the company for producing high quality components, finish machined if required for a wide range of other sectors.

Precision Components

Investment casting, also known as lost wax casting, offers the potential for finely detailed castings with complex internal structures suitable for the most demanding of industries. The investment casting process is complex and involves a number of stages as detailed below:

  • Tooling Design
  • Production of Wax Pattern
  • Preparation of Casting Pattern Tree
  • 7 Layer Ceramic Shell Coating
  • Wax Removal by Melting
  • Metal Pouring
  • Knock Out
  • Sprue Removal
  • Flaw Detection
  • Heat Treatment
  • Machining
  • Finishing
  • Inspection

Quality Control

EDL offer inhouse quality control to the highest standards. Combining our years of experience with the latest technical capability and an array of flaw detection techniques, metallurgical controls and CMM we are able to offer investment castings for the most challenging performance criteria.

Waxes & Coatings

Quality of finished castings is dependent entirely on the quality of the waxes and coatings used. We use only the finest new filled, emulsified and straight pattern waxes together with high grade ceramic slurry. Moulds are thoroughly cleaned and internally treated with a release agent prior to coating to ease production and produce parts of high quality.

Capability

All non-ferrous materials poured
Precise dimensional tolerances achievable
Soluble core capability
Precise melt control using dual energy furnaces
In house heat treatment
Spectrographic melt analysis
Ardrox N.D.T. facility
X-ray facility
Test Bar Analysis
CMM mark out capability
Machine shop support
Rapid prototyping

Plant

3 Epic 5, 12 & 35 Tonne Side Injection Wax Presses
1 Bryant 5 Tonne Top Injection Press
1 Sorrin 20 Tonne Top Injection Press
3 Shell Aerators
2 Ceramic Mixers Environmentally Controlled Drying Room
1 1250mm Dia Boilerclave
1 AEW Shell Firing Furnace

Capacity

Castings from 10 grams to 20 kg
Typical batch sizes 1 to 500

Accuracy

Linear tolerances down to 0.1mm
Cast holes, counter bores and threads
Good surface finish and flatness
Full inspection support for first off mark-outs

Galleries

Take a look at our Investment Casting Galleries for an idea of our capabilities: