High Quality Steel Investment Casting - Stainless Steel 304/CF8 Investment Casting – RMC Foundry

304 stainless steel is a general type, belonging to austenitic stainless steel. It is widely used in the foundry industry. The standard composition of 304 stainless steel is 18% chromium plus 8% nickel. It is non-magnetic. When the impurity content is high, it will occasionally show weak magnetism after processing. This weak magnetism can only be eliminated by heat treatment. It belongs to stainless steel whose metallographic structure cannot be changed by heat treatment.

In the international standard, the grades equivalent to 304 stainless steel are: 1.4301, X5CrNi18-10, S30400, CF8 and 06Cr19Ni10. As one of the most widely-used materials of stainless steel, 304 stainless steel castings play an important role in serving our customers.

▶ Capabilities of Investment Casting at RMC Foundry
• Max Size: 1,000 mm × 800 mm × 500 mm
• Weight Range: 0.5 kg – 100 kg
• Annual Capacity: 2,000 tons
• Bond Materials for Shell Building: Silica Sol, Water Glass and their mixtures.
• Tolerances: On Request.

▶ Investment Casting Procedure
• Patterns & Tooling Design → Metal Die Making → Wax Injection → Slurry Assembly → Shell Building → De-Waxing → Chemical Composition Analysis → Melting & Pouring → Cleaning, Grinding & Shot Blasting → Post Processing or Packing for Shipment

▶ How To Inspect Stainless Steel Investment Castings
• Spectrographic and manual quantitative analysis
• Metallographic analysis
• Brinell, Rockwell and Vickers hardness inspection
• Mechanical property analysis
• Low and normal temperature impact testing
• Cleanliness inspection
• UT, MT and RT inspection

▶ Post-Casting Process
• Deburring & Cleaning
• Shot Blasting / Sand Peening
• Heat Treatment: Normalization, Quench, Tempering, Carburization, Nitriding
• Surface Treatment: Passivation, Anodizing, Electroplating, Hot Zinc Plating, Zinc Plating, Nickel Plating, Polishing, Electro-Polishing, Painting, GeoMet, Zintec.
• Machining: Turning, Milling, Lathing, Drilling, Honing, Grinding.

▶ Advantages of Stainless Steel Investment Casting:
• Excellent and smooth surface finish
• Tight dimensional tolerances.
• Complex and intricate shapes with design flexibility
• Capability to cast thin walls therefore a lighter casting component
• Wide selection of cast metals and alloys (ferrous and non-ferrous)
• Draft is not required in the molds design.
• Reduce the need for secondary machining.
• Low material waste.