Lost Wax Casting for Fine Art
Quality Precision Investment Casting
R2 Quality Casting’s team of lost wax casters is dedicated to providing customers with quality precision investment casting in a wide variety of applications, including fine art. Artists across the globe have been using the technique of lost wax casting for thousands of years. Fine art precision investment casting allows artists to precisely duplicate pieces down to the finest detail.
The Fine Art Investment Casting Process (In a Nutshell)
Artists start the investment casting process by creating an original model from clay or wax. The model is then covered with a durable and flexible mold material like silicone, latex, or polyurethane rubber to create an inner mold. This mold material captures all of the fine details of the original model. Once the inner mold hardens, an outer layer of plaster, silicone or fiberglass is placed around the inner mold to ensure the mold correctly holds its form. Melted wax is then poured into the mold, gradually coating the inner surface. This process is repeated until the desired wax thickness is reached. After the wax hardens it is removed from the mold. The mold can be re-used to duplicate the piece as many times as needed.
The wax copy is then sprued to provide channels for burning wax, air and molten metal. Once sprued, the wax copy is covered with several layers of sand and slurry to create a sturdy mold. Once the mold layer is solid, the piece is placed into a kiln, burning the wax away. This leaves a negative image of the final piece within a sand and slurry shell.
Without sufficient kiln heating, contact with molten metal will crack this shell under the stress of thermal shock.
The empty shell is then filled with molten metal, usually bronze. The bronze piece gradually cools and solidifies, after which we carefully remove the shell.
Finally, sprues are removed and any finishing touches, like polishing, are applied. The high accuracy of lost wax casting eliminates the need for extensive machining in most applications.
Precision Investment Casting Artistic Applications
Fine art investment casting is used in a wide array of applications across the globe. Common artistic applications include:
- Sculptures
- Statues
- Trophies and Awards
- Pottery
- Jewelry
R2 Quality Castings has extensive experience providing unbeatable fine art investment casting. We produce near net shaped castings and can efficiently handle production runs ranging from 1 to 5,000 pieces. Our experts effectively cast everything from mass produced decorative sculptures to individual custom designed pieces with extraordinary detail. Trust the Quality Castings experts to create consistent, durable, and long-lasting art.
R2 Quality Casting Comprehensive Services
Choosing an experienced precision investment casting company can make all the difference when you need high quality cast manufacturing components crafted to your exact specifications. Offering a range of services including foundry assistance, part design and development, and quality verification, the R2 Quality Casting team is dedicated to providing efficient and economical methods for component production. With 40 years in the industry, R2 Quality Castings is your best source for dependable component casting services.
