sydney’s newest investment casting foundry

Our Services

  • Artworks

    Interested in making one of your artworks in bronze, or casting an existing sculpture in bronze

    Find out more

  • Prototyping

    Have an idea you’ve always wanted to try, maybe its a handle or a new product…

    We can help

  • Repeat Castings

    Interested in producing repeat castings, maybe you have existing tooling from another foundry or want to produce your pieces locally.

    Find out more

  • Plaques

    Want to commemorate someone or something special, your business or a building.

    We can help

What is investment Casting

investment casting or lost wax casting is a manufacting process to create intricate and detailed metal parts with its origins dating back almost 6000 years.

Investment casting is favored for its ability to produce highly detailed and complex parts with excellent surface finishes. It's often used in industries like aerospace, automotive, art, and even in creating specialized parts for machinery and equipment. The process allows for intricate designs and shapes that might be difficult or impossible to achieve with other casting methods.

Pattern creation

The process begins with the creation of a pattern, made from wax or a similar material. This pattern is an exact replica of the final part that needs to be produced. This can be produced using a silicone mold of the original piece, a wax sculpture, tooling on our wax injection machine or a 3d print for small one off pieces or prototyping.

assembly

These wax patterns are attached to a central bar, creating a cluster of patterns.  the bar varies in size and shape depending on the pieces being cast and the quantities. This assembly is often referred to as a "tree" or “casting tree” due to its branch-like appearance.

investment

The wax tree is then hand dipped into a ceramic slurry, and coated with fine zircon sand. This process is repeated multiple times often taking up to 24 hours to dry. each subsequent dip is followed by a coating of fine to course sand. as the layers build up, The ceramic coating forms a shell around around the wax patterns.

dewaxing

once the ceramic shell is hardened, it is loaded into our autoclave, a large pressure boiler that melts the wax out to be reused.  following this each shell is placed into the kiln and preheated to 800 degrees, removing all moisture from the shell and ensuring there is no wax or debris inside each shell.

casting

The empty shell, now known as the mold is preheated and placed into a casting box before the molten metal is poured in.  The mold is preheated to ensure there is no moisture and to avoid thermal shock when the metal meets ceramic.

deshelling

once the metal solidifies, the ceramic shell is broken off using air hammers, the individual cast pieces are then cut off the casting tree, sandblasted to clean and remove the last of the ceramic shell and then finished to meet the desired specifications.