3D Printed QuickCast Pattern for Investment Casting

At Aero India 2021 I spoke to several officers of the Indian Air Force involved in procurement as well as executives from established defence contractors and startups. Their awareness of metal 3D printing was substantial which was heartening. However, I didn’t find anyone who knew that 3D printing could be employed for investment casting as well. I used this 3D printed QuickCast pattern to explain to them that there was no need to spend lakhs of rupees and weeks of time to machine a mould just so that they could inject wax into it and create a pattern to be used for investment casting. At 3D Systems, we have two technologies – Stereolithorgaphy (SLA) and Multijet Printing (MJP) which can be used to directly print a pattern either a castable resin or wax. This is ideal for the aerospace industry because the quantities of parts they need are often in single digits or low double digits.