3D Printing in Casting Area

Traditional casting process plays an important role in manufacturing industry, but there are some limitations. And with the rapid development of 3D printing technology, 3D printing casting process comes into its own and brings new ideas and applications to the casting industry.

Ⅰ. Definition of 3D printing casting process

3D printing casting process is a manufacturing method that combines the traditional casting process and 3D printing technology, the core of which lies in the use of 3D printing technology to construct a mold, and then through the traditional casting of molten metals or alloys to create parts. The most important feature of this process is that complex and personalized molds can be printed flexibly and quickly according to the design requirements, which brings new possibilities for realizing the various shapes and structures of parts.

Ⅱ. The applications of 3D printing technology in casting

1. Customized castings: The traditional casting processes usually need to make molds, and the production of complex shapes of molds is more difficult and expensive. By using 3D printing technology to manufacture molds, can be flexibly customized various shapes castings, to provide solutions for personalized needs.
2. Fast sample verification: Using traditional casting methods to manufacture samples is often time-consuming and not easy to modify. The 3D printing casting process can quickly create a sample of the mold, more quickly cast samples for verification, to provide support for fast iteration in the product development process.
3. Complex structure castings: Traditional casting is difficult to realize the complex structure casting manufacturing, through the 3D printing casting process, you can accurately print out the complex structure of the mold, in the casting process to achieve the complex shape and the internal channel filling, so that the complex structure of the casting manufacturing has become feasible.
4. Mixed material casting: Traditional casting usually relies on a single metal or alloy material, while 3D printing technology can be mixed with the powder of different materials to achieve the manufacturing of mixed material castings, opening up the possibility of more material combinations and performance optimization.

With the continuous innovation of 3D printing technology and materials, 3D printing casting process will have a wider application prospect. Through the 3D printing casting process can not only realize complex metal parts with microscopic structure, which are applied in the fields of microscopic devices, bionics and medical devices, but also create unique artworks and decorations using 3D printing technology, breaking the traditional casting limitations and showing more creative and personalized designs.