Casting is a process that is widely used in metal industries. There are different processes, such as sandy casting, investment casting, low-pressure casting, die casting, and gravity casting. Here we mainly talk about investment casting and die casting for aluminum material.
Die casting is a process that injects molten metal into the steel die cavity by die casting machine. Normally, there are two kinds for choosing we called hot chamfer to die casting and cold chamfer die casting. And the hardened steel mold could be built up to produce a million shots before it would need to be repaired or replaced. But considering the mold cost, in our company, we always develop mold lifetime up to 50000 shots to 100000 shots.
Investment casting is a process that looks much more complex. It will take more time to make a part. A wax prototype should be made at the first step, then you should make the same wax prototype for many many pieces. We can call these wax prototype as molds. Die casting only needs 1 mold, but investments seem to have many more molds. Then the wax prototype should be dipped into liquid ceramic. The ceramic hardens and then the wax is melted out leaving you with a ceramic mold. Molten metal is then poured into the ceramic cavity where the wax once was. Once the metal solidifies, the ceramic mold is broken and removed leaving the metal casting. The mold used to create the wax pattern can be used many times however the ceramic mold is broken and discarded with each part.
We could choose a suitable process by considering the below factors.
Material
Most die cast parts are made from non-ferrous metals like zinc, aluminum, and magnesium. Investment casting is capable of casting cast those metals along with ferrous metals, including stainless steel. If you are looking to use a non-ferrous material, both processes offer comparable features. However, if you are looking to use stainless steel or copper alloys, investment casting is the better option.
Quantity you need
When deciding which casting process to use, decide what your desired payback period is for the tool cost. How many parts created versus the cost of the tooling to “break even.” While investment casting tooling may be cheaper and suitable for lower volume projects, aluminum die casting is ideal for larger production runs and high-volume projects.
Tolerance required
With any casting process, tolerance capabilities are largely influenced by the shape of the part and the type of material used. The multi-slide die casting process is capable of holding even tighter tolerances.
I hope the above information is helpful to you.
