buyCASTINGS President Presents AFS 4L Committee Paper at the 2006 Investment Casting Institute Conference

Newly released research on computer modeling to obtain tooling dimensions for investment casting

Bob Dzugan, President of buyCASTINGS.com Inc. and current Chairman of the AFS 4L Committee on Investment Casting, has presented a paper entitled “Computer Simulation to Predict Wax Tooling Dimensions” at Investment Casting Institute’s 54th Annual Conference and Expo in Milwaukee, WI, Oct. 22-25, 2006. The paper detailed the progress made by research at Oak Ridge National Labs funded by the Department of Energy through the AFS, ATI and SCRA groups.

The objective of the research is to provide to industry a commercialized computer model that will allow a user to predict the dimensions needed for the wax die to produce an investment cast metal part that will dimensionally meet the drawing.

This will be accomplished by inputting critical properties of the wax, shell, and metal into a computer modeling system. The critical properties needed, will also be determined during this program.

The research involves a multitude of industrial companies such as

• Johnson & Johnson; Schrey and Sons; Precision Metalsmiths; S&A Consulting; buyCASTINGS.com; Independent Tool; Jim Gardner (JEM)
• Ping Golf; Advanced Tech Inst.; General Aluminum; MCM Precision
• ESI (Procast); EMTEC; Seacast; Argueso; Hitchiner (MCT); Minco
• Vulcan Engineering; PCC; S. Carolina Research Auth.; Precision Casting of Tenn.

Beta testing is underway at the University of Alabama and the wax portion of the modeling is also included in the latest release of ESI’s ProCast solidification modeling software.