At Dobbie we can produce quality castings by two distinct production processes.
Chemically bonded hard sand casting enjoys several production advantages over other casting methods:
Molding sand is relatively inexpensive and readily recycled. It is also resistant to extremely high temperatures making it ideal for melting steels, nickel and other high melting point base media.
The production flexibility of hard sand has many advantages:
- High dimensional tolerances
- Good general surface smoothness finish
- Minimal casting defects
- Good for large range of base media (including high melting point)
- Sizes and weight variation
- Low production cost
- Scalability
This methodology provides excellent results when producing large, heavy castings and small run/prototype investment castings.
Investment casting, often referred to as “lost-wax” casting, uses an expendable mold process to create complex products with exceptionally fine surfaces. It’s a precision technique because of the versatility that can be created in mold design via injecting wax under pressure into an aluminium casting mold. Castings can be more complex and precise than other, traditional types of cast products. It is, however, a more expensive process.
Investment casting has many advantages:
- Very high dimensional tolerances
- Excellent general surface smoothness finish
- Minimal casting defects
- Complex geometries
- Thin wall sections
- Scalability
- Excellent for exotic metals and alloys
