Abstract:Over the years, investment casting methods have remained unchanged for the most part. Wax sacrificial patterns are invested to create voids for pouring metal parts. Nowadays, manufacturers are constantly seeking methods of lowering overall costs while sustaining or improving quality through continuous improvement activities. As such, additive manufacturing techniques continue to show promising results especially in investment casting applications. This paper provides an overview of recent research, highlighting the benefits and challenges of a variety of additive manufacturing techniques in investment casting. Moreover, specific examples of fused deposition modeled sacrificial pattern studies validating successful applications in investment casting are presented. |
