RP CAST Renders Precision Casting More Time and Cost-Effective

RP CAST is a South Korean company specialized in the production of metal parts, ranging from prototypes and small-scale production of turbines to valves and compressor cases. As echoed in their company name, they primarily use precision casting to produce these parts.

Precision or investment casting involves creating a wax pattern, which is subsequently coated in ceramic. The prototype is then fired in an oven, which results in the wax melting away and leaving a hardened ceramic mold. Molten metal is then poured into the mold, and once the metal has solidified sufficiently, the ceramic mold is broken apart, leaving behind the final metal part.

A New Method to Create a Pattern

Investment casting has the capacity to cast extremely detailed and complex shapes, but producing the pattern is very costly when done traditionally. To construct the wax pattern, metal dies need to be milled, which is both expensive and time-consuming when doing small-scale production. Therefore, RP CAST turned to 3D Printing to speed up the first step of the process and render their business more profitable.

Using Materialise Magics, RP CAST is able to create a 3D model of the master part using a voxeljet printer, and then dip it in wax. The rest of the process remains the same. RP CAST extensively used the fixing and hollowing tools, with Materialise Magics giving them the ability to repair STL files without the need to go back to the original CAD file. The hollowing tool in particular is extremely useful, as RP CAST only needs the shape of the part in order to print it, but by hollowing it they can significantly reduce the weight and cost of the printed part. 

Magics also allows the user to hollow the object uniformly, which prevents the printed part from warping and shrinking. Finally, RP CAST also uses the multi section viewer extensively, which allows them to easily view a certain section of the part they are working on. 

The Advantages of a Printed Pattern

RP CAST said goodbye to the laborious work of designing and milling metal dies for producing a wax pattern. 3D printing technology allows them to immediately print the pattern, saving time and money. They especially appreciate the Hollowing feature of Materialise Magics.

“The Hollowing feature of Materialise Magics is a key function for 3D Printing, especially for the process of precision casting which requires the outer shape of a part,” explains Kyung Joon Park, Representative Director of RP CAST.  

“Thanks to this feature, the user can avoid drawing the walls of the object one by one in CAD. There is no need to hollow the model in CAD, only the shape needs to be determined. Afterwards you can hollow the inside of the solid model with few clicks in Materialise Magics and the work is done. This enables us to allocate our workload and spend time efficiently and wisely; and it reduces material costs as well.”

Curious to learn about other applications of Materialise Magics? Read more Materialise Magics case studies.