Process Makes Lost Wax Casting
Investment Casting is often the most practical and cost effective method of creating steel components that utilize the SLA Rapid Prototyping process. The lost wax casting process will yield a net or near net shape that can meet the design needs of end users of castings. The drawback however, is that the capital cost of building permanent tooling to replicate the patterns in wax on an ongoing basis can be challenging due to costs. Costs increase when the engineer is attempting to verify that the end product will work as predicted. Often times, a tool to create a 20 pound Investment castings can approach nearly $10,000. The most effective solution to keep costs down is Rapid Prototyping.
Stereolithography Apparatus, or more commonly known as SLA, is a commercially Rapid Prototyping process which is still widely used today to provide better accuracy and finish to a surface than the other rapid prototyping technologies on the market.
The Stereolithography Apparatus (SLA) technique was originally developed by 3D Systems of Valencia, California back in 1986. SLA allows for a rapid prototyping service,Lost wax casting turning a 3D CAD drawing into a solid object. Most SLA can be used as master patterns for injection molding core and cavity inserts, thermoforming, blow molding, and various metal casting processes. Rapid prototyping exploits a SLA Pattern, which can be generated using a CAD file. SLA is a pattern used in place of a wax pattern for the lost wax process of investment casting. The result is a casting that can be put into use to prove the process without the heavy investment in permanent tooling.
