As a precision casting process, the shell making is a very critical process during investment casting. The quality of the shell is directly related to the roughness and dimensional tolerance of the final casting. Therefore, it is an important task for the investment casting foundry to choose a suitable manufacturing method for the mold shell.

According to different adhesives, investment casting molds can be divided into water glass adhesive shells, silica sol adhesive shells, ethyl silicate adhesive shells and ethyl silicate-silica sol composite shells. These modeling methods are the most commonly used methods in investment casting.

Water Glass Shell
The investment casting produced by the water glass shell casting has high surface roughness, low dimensional accuracy, short shell-making cycle and low price. This process is widely used in casting carbon steel, low alloy steel, aluminum alloy and copper alloy.

Silica Sol Shell
The silica sol investment casting has low roughness, high dimensional accuracy, and long shell-making cycle. This process is widely used in high-temperature heat-resistant alloy castings, heat-resistant steel castings, stainless steel castings, carbon steel castings, low alloy castings, aluminum alloy castings and copper alloy castings.

Ethyl Silicate Shell
In investment casting, castings made by using ethyl silicate as a binder to make the shell have low surface roughness, high dimensional accuracy, and a long shell-making cycle. This process is widely used in heat-resistant alloy castings, heat-resistant steel castings, stainless steel castings, carbon steel castings, low alloy castings, aluminum alloy castings and copper alloy castings.