Precision casting is a process by which metal shaping happens to get the nearest form of the desired shape of the machinery. Nowadays, precision casting is everywhere, be it in households or in making the body of aircraft. Precision casting has chosen aluminum because of its unique features and casting abilities. The lightweight, high tensile strength, and low density of the metal help aluminum to be selected as the best metal for precision casting. We will be discussing this in detail in this article. In this article, we will also be focussing on what is aluminum precision casting in detail, along with its advantages and accuracy.
What is aluminum precision casting?
Precision casting is a type of casting to create complicated metal components with much precision and consistency. Precision casting is basically, the formation of a shape with the nearest resemblance to the real shape with great precision. In other words, the net shaping of a tool is done with a metal that has great features of the desired tool or machinery with a similar specification.
Now the question might arise, as to why casting has to be done and why is this double work.
As we all know, different industries, be it automotive, aircraft, machinery, or crockeries focus on their cost efficiency and energy conservation more. So, it is very important to get a metal that suits all the criteria. Aluminum is chosen to get the shape and the specification of the desired metal. The lightweight, recycling properties, high tensile strength, and low density of the metal make it apt to get the shape of the tool of that desired tool.
First, the wax structure is formed from the desired metal because of which aluminum precision casting is also called lost wax casting. later, the wax mold got dipped into liquid ceramic 2-3 times in order to make the mold strong. This ceramic can be called the investment metal, so is another name for precision casting, which is investment casting. The name investment came because of getting the desired shape of the tool by the selected metal, a third metal is used to make the mold structure.
Now, the wax gets removed from the ceramic structure, thus making it a cavity for the casting metal to fill in.
Advantages of precision aluminum casting
The advantage of Investment casting or precision aluminum casting is that one can manufacture any complex metal components of any type with high strength and precision. The precision and high strength depend on the choice of metal to which the tool will be cast. Aluminum has been mostly chosen for the casting process. It is because aluminum has all the good feature that is required in metal to be cast. In this subheading, we will be talking about the advantages of precision aluminum casting:
- Precise surface finish – Precision casting gives a perfect surface finish without the use of a hammer out. Unlike sand casting, the surface of investment casting comes out smooth right after the process, and do not need to invest any more time in forging. This also helps to consume time and labor.
- Looks exactly like the finished product – The product that comes out after investment casting looks close to the finished product design. Unlike other casting processes, holes, slots, and unevenness everything can be done in this process. This in turn helps in saving cost, time, and labor. No retouching is necessary for this process.
- High tolerance – It is because of the process and its nature, investment casting has a tighter tolerance as compared to forging or sand casting.
- Much less tool cost – the use of tools in case of investment or precision casting is much less than sand casting or any other casting process. The use of fewer tools also helps in reducing the overall cost of the process.
- Thin wall casting – precision casting has reliably thin walls as compared to sand casting. The finished machinery also weighs less due to the use of thin walls in the process. This helps in fewer transportation costs and overall contributes to the cost of the process.
- Less defective finished products – Since the process is quite prominent and clean. The wax mold, then ceramic sheets, then dewaxing, and then pouring off the actual metal. The whole process uses materials that are less messy. So, after finishing the product, it requires no touchup and there will be less scrap to deal with.
How accurate is aluminum casting?
To understand how accurate a metal is for casting, we need to look into the tolerance standards of the same. In any die-casting process, the type of alloy being used in the process, and its right size or length all depend on the tolerance of the particular metal. The tolerance of the metal should be looked at in a different way. The tolerance of the chosen metal should be as tight as necessary and not as tight as possible. Precision casting has metals with tighter tolerances. One shouldn’t look into how the tightness of the tolerance is ideal but we should rather look at how tight the tolerance standard should be to meet up the industry’s guidelines.
In this case, one should follow the rules set by the industry rather than following them in general.
There are different characteristics to look into in machinery to set the rules for the metals to compete in the eligibility test of die casting tolerances, they are:
- The type or form of the part that should be made through die casting.
- The relation of that tool with the other tools present in the machinery.
- How proximate the features are with each other in the tool.
Now, the question is “Why aluminum?”
Aluminum die casting has a higher manufacturing rate than any other metal alloy because of its great features. Aluminum is light in weight which makes it a cost-efficient metal. It is durable, has a low density and it’s recyclable making it an energy-efficient metal as well. Listing the rate of standard tolerance and the precision tolerance of the aluminum die casting are mentioned below :
- +/- 0.010 inch per 1 inch / +/- 0.001 in add on inch for standard tolerance.
- +/- 0.002 inch per 1 inch / +/- 0.001 in add on inch for precision tolerance.
Summary
Precision casting or the other name for investment casting is a clean and very prominent process. It gives the finished product after a few processes without any forging or hammering out, unlike sand casting. The light weight of aluminum and its high tensile strength makes it a cost-efficient metal to choose from out of all alloy. It also requires less labor and saves time in comparison to other casting processes. Team sunrise metal is an expert in proving the best precision die cast metal components. Although this process is a little slow and cannot be done in a bulk the company promises to deliver the product in time.