CASTING CONTEST
Bridging Investment Casting Technology to the Future ENTRY: CASTING 106 The canister body is used on an electro strainer for a
sea water management system to enhance performance while protecting against biofouling. This part was originally fabricated by welding of outsourced flanges with pipes and plate of material 2205 Duplex Stainless Steel which required machining, welding and inspection. The resulting product was costly and had poor aesthetic quality, was nonconforming dimensionally, exhibited a high degree of corrosion in use and required heat treatment. By converting this component into a single piece
investment casting, several machined assembly components were replaced, welding was eliminated and dimensional accuracy was enhanced.
Additionally, the cast component
had improved aesthetics and demonstrated higher corrosion resistance than the fabricated component. The successful manufacture of this complicated geometry as a one-piece investment casting, resulted in customer purchasing a significantly higher quality part while realizing manufacturing cost and cycle time savings.
ENTRY: CASTING 107
This project was initiated with the licensor of an extremely popular anime show called “Fullmetal Alchemist”. The challenge was to replicate a main character’s armored helmet for a limited production collector item. Making this from conventional aluminum tooling would have been cost prohibitive. Through the use of plastic 3D printed patterns, the team was able to garner design validation, and for the final master, an SLA 3D print was utilized to capture the details of the character. Using the SLA printed master, casting patterns were made from a silicone rubber mold reducing mold costs by over 80%. Replicating accurately the fine details of an extremely
popular character from the anime “Fullmetal Alchemist”, made this a perfect project for investment casting. In order to accurately represent the character, the armored helmet could only be made from solid metal. The flexibility and fine surface finish of investment casting allowed for the team to create a life-sized scale replica of the character’s armored helmet in luxurious shiny stainless steel. The original design was only available in pictures, multiple
iterations were needed to build the design and optimize the part accurately for investment casting, but still capture the details of the beloved character. This iterative process can only be achieved in a timely and accurate manner through AM methods. The project required the final approval of the licensor and printed draft models utilizing FDM and other AM
16 ❘ August 2023 ® Name:
Dimensions: 16 in. x 12 in. x 12 in. Weight: Alloy:
Armor of Alphonse 24 Lbs.
SCS13 (JIS 304 cast grade)
technologies provided the customer with a tangible replica for design validation. The first batch of the metal replicas were cast with AM patterns, and without access to such technologies, accurately replicating the intricacies and natural organic lines of the armored helmet would have been an incredible challenge.
Name: Canister Body
Dimensions: 8 in. x 8 in. x 8 in. Alloy:
Duplex (ASTM A995 Gr. 5A) CATEGORY: FINE ART CATEGORY: MARINE
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