OPTIMIZATION OF CERAMIC SHELL MOLD MATERIALS IN INVESTMENT CASTING

I. B. Dave, V. N. Kaila

Abstract: Ceramic shell investment casting process is used to produce high quality casting products with relatively close dimensional tolerance. The refractory material use as primary coat on shell mold of investment casting play a very important role to form surface finish. Zircon flour though costly, is being used as a primary slurry material in the ceramic shell investment casting process. To reduce the cost of primary slurry material, some alternate refractory material like, alumina, silica, used with zircon to enhance properties. The hardness test of the casted samples and micro-examination under binocular metallurgical microscope has been done to study the micro-characteristic evaluation. The result reveals that the ceramic shell contains 100% zircon primary refractory gives the best results.

Keywords: shell mold, refractory, slurry, investment casting

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0310005