Investigations for Mechanical Properties of Hybrid Investment Casting: A Case Study

Abstract

Conventional investment casting is one of the old manufacturing processes. It involves expensive tooling for making sacrificial wax patterns to make ceramic moulds. However, with the emergence of rapid prototyping technologies, now it is possible to make and use plastic patterns instead of wax patterns along with some advantages. In this paper, plastic patterns have been prepared by using fused deposition modeling and used for investment casting process. A case study has been discussed to make a biomedical implant by the hybridization of fused deposition modeling with investment casting. Dimensional accuracy, surface finish and hardness of the casted biomedical implants have been tested and reported.