details DESIGN
Investment Casting Design Packed With Features
JITEN SHAH, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & ANALYSIS, NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS CASTING PROFILE
Cast Component: Electronic housing casting.
Material: AA356-T6 aluminum. Weight: 2.2 lbs. Dimensions: 7.5 x 7.5 x 10 in.
Application: Defense industry.
Casting, O’Fallon, Mo., exhibits close dimensional tolerances, zero draft and excellent surface fi nish, thanks to investment casting. T e customer had experienced knowledge of the investment casting process and used that to combine multiple features and parts into a single, rigid casting for a high precision, lightweight component.
D
esign engineers can utilize an incredible amount of free- dom with the investment casting process, which involves the building of a pattern through assembly of wax shapes to form a near-net-shape replica of the desired part. T is electron- ics housing for the defense industry, produced by O’Fallon
Weight is reduced with thin wall sections, zero draft and undercuts.
• Investment casting aluminum allows walls to be as thin as 0.06 in. with high defi nition. A lattice structure provides the required stiff ness to the walls.
• Hollowing out the underside and rear portion of the fl ange provided additional weight reduction.
• T in fi ns facilitate heat transfer. 16 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Sept/Oct 2013
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