Investment Casting Design Engineering
Design Support
Investment casting design support is a key benefit we offer customers. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, the process varies with every project and partner. Our engineering team has the specialisms and capabilities to design your part for you, or collaborate with you to finalise your design requirements.
Maximum Value
Early involvement provides maximum value across the project lifecycle. Aligning expectations early clarifies timings and budgets. We pride ourselves on achieving the best part and outcome with the best total cost of ownership together.
Initial Design Considerations
To ensure right-first-time delivery, the design must be right-first-time too. We work with a wide range of materials, from sample parts and 2D drawings to CAD files. Our engineers convert early designs into 3D CAD files, making rapid prototyping with dimensional accuracy easy.
Key initial considerations:
- Flatness & Straightness: Uniform thicknesses on flat surfaces wherever possible.
- Blind Holes: Depth should not exceed width.
- Undercuts: Can increase wax tooling complexity and cost, and reduce tooling life.
- Gating Design: The number of gates affects cost and casting quality; avoid thick-to-thin sections to minimise gates.
Case Studies
FAQs
How do I design for investment casting?
Design carefully considering geometry, material, and manufacturability. Collaborating with engineers to adhere to casting guidelines and validate designs with simulations ensures alignment between design and manufacturing.
Do you have investment casting engineers who can help me?
Yes, our global team of expert engineers help optimise your designs for investment casting.
What do I need to provide for design support?
Detailed specifications, 3D CAD models, drawings, and project constraints help tailor recommendations effectively.
What design considerations are most important for investment casting success?
Key considerations include maintaining uniform wall thickness to avoid defects, designing smooth transitions and radii to reduce stress concentrations, minimising sharp internal corners, and planning gating and riser locations to ensure sound solidification. Early collaboration ensures designs meet process capabilities and optimise cost.
How can design for manufacture (DFM) improve the efficiency and cost of my investment casting?
DFM helps by refining part geometry to reduce complexity, simplifying tooling requirements, minimising extra machining, and enhancing casting yield. Implementing DFM principles early aligns designs with manufacturing strengths, lowering production costs and accelerating time to market.
What types of CAD files do you accept for design support?
We support standard 3D CAD file formats such as STEP (.stp, .step), IGES (.iges, .igs), Parasolid (.x_t, .x_b), SolidWorks (.sldprt), and Autodesk Inventor (.ipt). Providing detailed, accurate CAD models helps us deliver precise engineering assistance.
Can your engineering team help optimise complex geometries for casting?
Yes, our experienced engineers collaborate closely with clients to refine and optimise intricate designs, ensuring manufacturability, material flow, proper draft, and minimising undercuts or tooling complexity for enhanced casting quality and cost-effectiveness.
How do undercuts affect tooling cost and design flexibility?
Undercuts increase tooling complexity because they require specialised mechanisms or slides in the mould, which raise initial tooling costs and can reduce tool life. While there is no strict limit to casting shape complexity, careful consideration of undercuts helps balance design freedom with cost-effective and reliable manufacturing.
Get In Touch
We take pride in building successful, long-term relationships with our clients, because their reputation is our priority.
If that sounds like an investment castings partner you’d like to work with, you can book an introduction call with our friendly and knowledgeable New Relations Team — in a language and time zone to suit you.