Investment Casting Design for Manufacturability Services
Designing a casting properly for the investment casting process is a critical first step in ensuring the part can be manufactured at the lowest cost with optimal performance. There are several industry standards and guidelines that should be considered during this process. At American Casting Company we know this and offer investment casting Design for Manufacturing (DFM) input to help ensure customer projects are successful. We prefer to get involved early in the design phase to ensure we can steer designers down a path of success. Our experienced foundry engineers are available to offer valuable suggestions for improvements before plans are finalized and manufacturing begins.
Investment Casting Design for Manufacturing Capabilities (DFM)
To create a seamless investment casting design, communication between designers and foundry engineers is a must. Our foundry engineers are experts at effectively communicating with designers, tool makers and design engineer. We work with the latest CAD and solidification analysis software packages which enables us to modify customer CAD, do analysis and communicate changes quickly and accurately. Our engineers have 35+ years of collective casting experience which enables us to easily detect and eliminate potential problems. Some of the key DFM considerations we can aid in are as follows:
- Determine minimum / maximum wall thickness.
- Identify isolated heavy sections that may be avoided.
- Determine where radii should be added to avoid sharp corners.
- Identify large flat surfaces which may bulge from pressure in mold.
- Look to minimize the number of gates that will be required to produce a sound casting.
- Figure out what the gate witness allowance should be.
- Help choose the correct final blast media for adequate surface texture.
- Identify cast vs. machined features and determine amount of machine stock to add.
- Evaluate the length, width and depth of holes / slots to ensure they can be cast.
- Look into adding ribs and removing mass to minimize part weight.
- Aid in the design and size of cast in part identification including numbers, letters and logos.
- Recommend special post process including Heat Treat, HIP, NDT, Surface Treatments and more.
Please see our Company Brochure for a complete tolerance, material and drawing checklist guide.
American Casting Company is an industry leader for investment casting DFM services. We believe that early involvement and input by our foundry engineers helps our customers design performance driven investment castings that can be produced for lower costs and with lower likelihood of defects. Please call us for any casting related design assistance you may need ranging from a simple tolerance review to full-scale creative design. We would be happy to meet with you in person, have a phone discussion or communicate via e-mail to better understand your needs and requirements.