Investment casting starts with tooling design and manufacture. Impro tooling workshop is equipped with sophisticated machining centers and specialty machine tools. Over 90% of investment casting tooling for wax patterns and cores are produced in house. During the design stage, we use solidification simulation software to detect potential casting defects so as to adjust the tooling and gating system design when necessary.
Impro has in-house 3D wax pattern printing capabilities for rapid prototype development.
Impro is equipped with automated wax injection machines. After the wax patterns are made, they are glued to a tree. The wax trees are washed via a conveying system to ensure cleanliness for the subsequent step- the shell making.
Impro has robotic shell molding lines. The shell system has automatic tracking mechanisms to ensure proper curing and achieve the specified shell thickness. After the shell molds are built, they are moved to the autoclave for wax removal.
Ceramic molds are pre-heated to a desirable temperature so that when the molten metal entering the mold, the metal fills into all the crevices and intricate parts of the mold and cold spots are eliminated. We have spectrometers quickly analyze chemical compositions of the molten metal to ensure materials comply with the specifications. Once the pouring is complete, the metal is allowed to cool. Impro pours both ferrous and non-ferrous metals of over 100 different alloys.
Once the castings are cooled, the ceramic shell is removed. The parts then undergo a cleaning process where any gates and runners are removed using grinding, cutting, and shot-blasting techniques.
Secondary machining processes are performed to cut down and shape the casting to the appropriate surface dimensions. During this phase, a range of CNC machines are used depending on the complexity of the part. Castings often undergo heat treatment and surface treatment to enhance the properties of the part. The heat treatment process usually occurs after cutting and cleaning the part, while surface treatments occur after the secondary machining process. Heat treatment helps to harden and provide mechanical properties to the part while surface treatment may enhance certain properties such as corrosion or wear resistance or for cosmetic appearance purposes.
Every finished part becomes inspected to ensure only the highest quality component is sent to the customer. A variety of laboratory testing will be performed on castings to ensure desirable microstructure and mechanical property. 3D scanning is among various types of dimensional inspection methods. Non-destructive testing (NDT) such as X-Ray inspection, Florescent Penetrant inspection, Magnetic Particle Inspection is also conducted on castings to detect defects.
Impro is fully capable of machining investment castings and supplying ready-to-install parts to customers. Inspections for machining finished castings include CMM dimensional check, profile and surface roughness inspection, pressure testing, etc. To learn more about our processes and how they may help with your component project, contact Impro.
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Impro Industries USA, Inc. - Los Angeles, CA
21660 East Copley Drive,
Suite 100,
Diamond Bar, CA 91765
26 июл 2024
