AMP - Advanced Manufacturing Park

Replicast ® Process

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

High Performance Machining is performed at the CTi.