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Rapid Prototyping

The popularity of additive manufacturing technology and rapid prototyping has not left the investment casting industry behind; in fact we were doing it long before the average person knew the technology existed. For decades, Acra Cast has been providing quick turnaround deliveries for prototype and low volume castings using 3D printed patterns in lieu of wax patterns and traditional wax injection tooling.

Using customer provided CAD data, patterns can be printed in just a few days and castings poured in under a week. Secondary operations such as heat treatment and machining will add to delivery times.

Because the 3D pattern replaces only the wax pattern, we’re still pouring into a ceramic mold so virtually any alloy we cast in production can be used to produce protoype castings.

The excellent surface finishes and tolerances our customers have come to expect from Acra Cast production castings can be duplicated using rapid protoype technology.

In summary, using Acra Cast as your source for rapid prototype castings offers the following advantages:

  1. Extremely quick deliveries
  2. Uses industry standard CAD formats
  3. No permanent tooling is required
  4. The same great alloy selection as used in production castings
  5. Validate designs with one or more generations of protoypes before going into full scale production
  6. Compress timelines from concept to market
  7. Perfect for a ‘one off’ repair part or specialized applications