AMP - Advanced Manufacturing Park

Casting

Castings Technology International (Cti) - Patternless® Process
The Patternless® Process was invented and developed by Cti. It is a technique whereby moulds are directly machined out of blocks of sand. This proves to be a very cost effective way of producing one-off or small production run castings, since it does not require the manufacture of patterns and core boxes.

The benefits associated with the process include: reduced time to manufacture; reduced total manufacturing costs; castings of high integrity and dimensional accuracy; appropriate surface finish and enhanced letter definition; suitable for castings of all sizes and weights; opportunities for one-off and small series production; no pattern storage or maintenance costs.
www.castingsdev.com/public/services/specialprocesses/SCPPatternlessMain.asp

Cti - Replicast®
Replicast® is a novel moulding and casting process, developed by Cti, which uses an inert, fired ceramic mould. To create the mould, an expanded polystyrene replica of the required component is produced, which is dimensionally precise and of excellent surface finish. No parting lines or cores are required, nor draft angles, and polystyrene replicas can be simply glued together to create complex geometries. Thus the process extends the quality and precision of investment casting to larger components.

In the Replicast® process, the polystyrene is fully burnt out before casting, allowing a wide range of alloys to be cast in the mould - from ultra low carbon stainless steel to nickel based alloys. This is in contrast to the lost foam process whereby liquid metal consumes and replaces the polystyrene pattern, making it unsuitable for the vast majority of steel components (polystyrene is 92% by weight carbon).

Advantages of the Replicast® process include: 25% lighter castings; 50% reduction in feed material; 40% more castings per melt.
www.castingstechnology.com/public/services/specialprocesses/scpreplicastmain.asp

Cti - Repliwax® Process
The Repliwax® Process significantly increases weight range for investment castings from grams to 140kg or more whilst maintaining near-net shape castings with the highest quality, best surface finish and greatest precision.

Key benefits: reduced distortion due to shell bulging; Elimination of metal run-out due to burst moulds; Increased melting yield through larger numbers of castings per heat; Reduced certification costs per component; Lower energy and consumable costs; Increased shelling capacity of up to 35%; Reduced shell material usage of up to 50%; The risk from handling hot and heavy shells is eliminated.
www.castingstechnology.com/public/services/specialprocesses/SCPRepliwaxMain.asp

Cti - Induction Skull melting in Titanium alloys
Titanium alloys are so reactive that they must be melted in a vacuum. Because they would react with linings normally used in melting systems, they are produced in a copper crucible that is water cooled to prevent it melting at the temperature of molten titanium - around 1700ºC. If the crucible failed to contain the titanium, and contact was made between the cooling water and the molten metal, a serious explosion would occur.

Consequently, melting systems for titanium alloys are complex engineering solutions to a considerable technical challenge that must also address serious safety issues. Induction skull melting (ISM) technology uses a water-cooled copper crucible but in this case it is segmented in such a way that an induction field can be established in the alloy placed inside the crucible, without the copper itself being heated by the induction field.
www.castingstechnology.com/ismtialloys.asp