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Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 859 – 865

3rd International Conference on Materials Processing and Characterisation (ICMPC 2014)

Investigations for Dimensional Accuracy of Investment Casting

Process after Cycle Time Reduction by Advancements in Shell
Moulding
Rupinder Singha*, Sunpreet Singhb, Vishal Mahajanc
a
Professor, Dept. of Production Engineering, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana (141006), India
b
Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Production Engineering, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana (141006), India
c
Research Scholar, Dept. of Production Engineering, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana (141006), India

Abstract

In the present work advancement in replication techniques for a biomedical component having a real 3D shape has been
introduced. A hip joint, made of ABS material, was fabricated as a master pattern (as one of a real 3D biomedical implant) by
fused deposition modelling (FDM). After this mold was made by the deposition of primary, secondary and tertiary coatings with
the addition of nylon fiber (1-2cm in length of 1.5D) as per the Taguchi L9 control log of experimentation. This study outlines
replication procedure of hip joint in detail from the master pattern to a final product with some investigation on dimensional
accuracy. The results of study highlights that during shell production, fiber modified shells had a much reduced drain time. This
gave a higher ceramic retention rate after dipping and led to a thicker coat compared to that produced without fiber addition.
© 2014
© 2014Elsevier
The Authors. Published
Ltd. This byaccess
is an open Elsevier Ltd.
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRIET).
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer review under responsibility of the Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRIET)
Keyword: Fused deposition modeling; nylon fiber; hip joint; dimensional accuracy; investment casting

1. Introduction

Investment casting process involves the production of engineering castings using an expandable pattern; usually
wax, Amira et al. (2011). The term investment casting derives from the characteristics use of mobile ceramic slurry
to form a mould with extremely smooth surface qualities, Babu et al. (1990). FDM is one of the rapid prototyping
(RP) technology by which physical objected (replica) is created directly from CAD data, Cheah et al. (2005), Cheng

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-987-225-7575; fax: +91-161-250-2700.

E-mail address: rupindersingh78@yahoo.com

2211-8128 © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer review under responsibility of the Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRIET)
doi:10.1016/j.mspro.2014.07.103
860 Rupinder Singh et al. / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 859 – 865

et al. (2012), Patel et al. (2012). These replicas are highly accurate in size and shape, Chhabra and Singh (2011).
Finally these replicas/patterns are dipped into the slurry and sprinkled with coarse refractory and dried. This process
is repeated until specific mould thickness attained. The literature review reveals that lots of other developments of
ceramic materials have currently been implemented to explore possible methods for the improvement of shell
performance, Jones and Yuan (2003a), Jones and Yuan (2003b). Inorganic or organic fibers can be used as
ingredients of slurry in order to increase rapidly the process of stucco coating. These studies highlights that nylon
fibers in a water based silica binder is an alternative to increase the mould thickness and at the same time it replaces
costly liquid polymer addition in investment casting mould. The unique properties of fiber modified system have
been found to be a promising alternative for the standard investment casting industry and with this mechanical
properties have been improved, Liao et al. (2011). Investment casting procedure involves 10 basic steps as shown in
Fig. 1.

WAX EJECTION TREE SLURRY

INJECTION OF THE ASSEMBLY COATING
WAX
PATTERN

FINAL SAND MOULD

DE-WAXING MOULD MAKING

POURING FINAL
PRE- THE CASTED
HEATING METAL PRODUCT

Fig. 1. Investment casting procedure.

The literature review reveals that a lot of research work has been reported on advancement in shell moulding for
investment casting and FDM process optimization. But hitherto very less work has been reported on
dimensional accuracy of cast component after reduction in cycle time of the investment castings prepared (by
advancement in shell moulding) with ABS patterns. So in the present work it is proposed to study the
dimensional accuracy of cast component prepared by investment casting process for ABS based patterns after
reduction in cycle time based upon advances in shell moulding. For present study, a component of biomedical
application has been selected as the benchmark. The detailed drawing (Ref. Fig.2) for the benchmark was made
using CATIA (CAD software). This drawing serves as the input to the FDM machine for development of
casting pattern. The pattern thus developed is used for investment casting process. Further, the lead cycle time
of the investment casting process has been reduced by optimizing the different slurry layers and the
combinations required for shell building. Finally this process will prove very economical if used for batch
production.

Fig. 2. Benchmark (hip joint).

 Rupinder Singh et al. / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 859 – 865 861

2. Experimentation

Pilot experimentation was conducted for finding the range of process parameters (like: number of slurry layers,
material of pattern and nylon addition in primary (1˚), secondary (2˚), and tertiary (3˚) coat). Nylon fibre size 1-2cm
and of weight 1.5daniel(D) has been mixed with 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat. After conducting the pilot experimentation it has
been observed that input parameters (like: number of layers, material of pattern and nylon addition in 1˚-2˚-3˚ coat)
have a significant effect on the dimensional accuracy of part. Based upon trial runs of pilot experimentation,
selected levels of input parameter for final experimentation are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Input parameter.

Parameter 1 Parameter 2 Parameter 3
Number of layers Pattern material Nylon fibre mixed in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat
L1 L2 L3 L1 L2 L3 L1 L2 L3
Nylon fibre Nylon fibre in 1˚ Nylon fibre in
8 9 10 Wax ABS dipped in wax (ABS + Wax) ABS
in 1˚ and 2˚ 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚

Experiments are conducted in accordance to Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. Control log of experimentation is shown
in Table 2.

Table 2. Control log of experimentation.

S. No. Number of layers Pattern material Nylon fibre mixed in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat
1. 8 Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚
2. 8 ABS + Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚ and 2˚
3. 8 ABS Nylon fibre in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚
4. 9 Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚ and 2˚
5. 9 ABS + Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚
6. 9 ABS Nylon fibre in 1˚
7. 10 Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚
8. 10 ABS + Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚
9. 10 ABS Nylon fibre in 1˚and 2˚

All experiments have been conducted in controlled environment and aluminum alloy LM6 has been used for casting
and sample of finally casted hip joint is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Casted hip joint.

3. Result and Discussion

The dimensional accuracy was measured as deviation of cast component dimensions from original drawing (Ref.
Fig.2). Out of three critical dimensions, shown in Fig. 2, dimension D=10mm was selected. Coordinate Measuring
Machine (CMM) has been used to measure cast component dimensions. Results for dimensional measurements are
shown in Table3.
862 Rupinder Singh et al. / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 859 – 865

Table 3. Results for dimensional accuracy.

Nylon fiber mixed in 1˚, 2˚
Number of Dimensional measurement (mm)
S. No. Pattern material and 3˚ coat
layers
R1 R2 R3
1. 8 Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚ 9.73 9.82 9.69
2. 8 ABS + Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚ and 2˚ 9.623 9.65 9.71
3. 8 ABS Nylon fibre in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ 9.5 9.62 9.48
4. 9 Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚ and 2˚ 10.06 10.1 10.02
5. 9 ABS + Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ 10.36 0.4 10.31
6. 9 ABS Nylon fibre in 1˚ 10.28 10.3 10.25
7. 10 Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ 9.86 9.81 9.89
8. 10 ABS + Wax Nylon fibre in 1˚ 10.156 10.2 10.12
9. 10 ABS Nylon fibre in 1˚and 2˚ 9.808 9.82 9.75

Here R1, R2 and R3 are three repetitions for experimentation in order to reduce the experimental error. Based upon
Table3, Table4 shows signal to noise (S/N) ratio for dimensional accuracy. These results are for lower the better
type problem, as because minimum deviation is required for better dimensional accuracy. Further based upon
Table4, Fig. 4-6 shows variation of S/N ratio and dimensional accuracy v/s no. of layers, pattern material type and
nylon fiber mixed in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat respectively. Further Fig.7 shows percentage contribution of input
parameters. These results are valid for 95% level of confidence.

Table 4. S/N ratio for dimensional accuracy.

Sum of square S/N ratio
S. No.

1. 95.00047 -19.77725739
2. 93.33624 -19.70050316
3. 90.88827 -19.58507821
4. 101.2047 -20.05200539
5. 107.2619 -20.30445486
6. 105.6103 -20.23706276
7. 97.08927 -19.87171221
8. 103.1996 -20.13677924
9. 95.89725 -19.81806174

-19.4 10.3
8 9 10 10.2
-19.5
Dimensional accuracy

10.1
S/N Ratio (dB)

-19.6
10
-19.7
9.9
-19.8
9.8
-19.9
9.7
-20
S/N 9.6
data -20.1 9.5
Raw -20.2 9.4
Fig.4
data Variation of S/N ratio and dimensional accuracy v/s no. of layers
-20.3 9.3
Number of Layers

Fig. 4. Variation of S/N ratio and dimensional accuracy v/s no. of layers
 Rupinder Singh et al. / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 859 – 865 863

-19.75 10.1
1 2 3
-19.8 10.05

S/N Ratio (dB)

-19.85 10

Dimensional accuracy
-19.9 9.95

-19.95 9.9

S/N -20 9.85

data -20.05 9.8
Raw
data -20.1 9.75
Material of Pattern

(Note: 1: Wax, 2: Wax + ABS, 3: ABS)

Fig. 5 Variation of S/N ratio and dimensional accuracy v/s pattern material
)(((

-19.75 10.1
4 5 6 10.05
-19.8

Dimensional accuracy
10
S/N Ratio (dB)

-19.85
9.95
-19.9
9.9
-19.95
9.85
-20 9.8
S/N -20.05 9.75
data
-20.1 9.7
Raw
data
Nylon fiber addition in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat

(Note: 4: Nylon fiber mixed in 1˚coat, 5: Nylon fiber mixed in 1˚and 2˚coat, 6: Nylon fiber mixed in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat)
Fig. 6 Variation of S/N ratio and dimensional accuracy v/s nylon fiber mixed in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat

11.63671
Number of
Layers

Material of
9.956503 Pattern

Fiber addition in
Secondary and
Tertiary

77.84644
864 Rupinder Singh et al. / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 859 – 865

Fig. 7 Percentage contribution for dimensional accuracy

As observed from Fig. 4-6, ‘8’ no. of slurry layers with ABS pattern material and nylon fiber addition in 1˚ and 2˚
coat is giving maximum S/N ratio and minimum deviation. This is because for nylon modified shells, retention rate
is increased and this leads to a thicker coat compared to other. Further production cycle has been saved by 8 hours.
Also addition of nylon fibers dramatically increases the fired permeability at casting temperatures, mainly due to
increased porosity networks left after the fiber burn out. This is of great benefit to the casting process, allowing
increased transport of air displaced from the mould cavity. The addition of nylon fibre dramatically increased the
fired permeability at casting temperatures, mainly due to increased porosity networks left after the fibre burn out.
This is of great benefit to the casting process, allowing increased transport of air displaced from the mould cavity.
Finally confirmatory experiment was conducted based upon optimized settings suggested by Taguchi design and
percentage improvement in dimensional accuracy is 2.23%. These results are in line with the observations made by
other investigators, Sidhu et al. (2008), Patnaik et al. (2012), Singh and Singh (2012), Singh (2013).

4. Conclusions

The casting of hip joint has been successfully developed by combining FDM based ABS patterns and investment
casting process. As regard to use of nylon fiber in shell production, drain time was reduced.The dimensional
accuracy is better with 8 number of slurry layers coated on an ABS pattern with the addition of nylon fibers in 1˚
and 2˚ coat only. The results of study suggests that for dimensional accuracy the contribution of no. of slurry layers,
type of pattern material and nylon fiber addition in 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ coat is 77.84%, 9.95% and 11.63% respectively.
Further studies may be focused on more number of input parameters and their levels to optimize the number of
refractory slurry and stucco layers to be invested on ABS pattern by fiber addition to get a component with
optimized setting. In the present work, analysis was carried out on a biomedical component (hip joint); further
studies may be focused on more complicated components of industrial applications so that they can be made with
ease and without excessive machining.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi under NCP.

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