What is the difference between silica sol and water glass investment casting process

What is the difference between silica sol and water glass investment casting process?

Investment casting is a general term for obtaining relatively precise size castings with a small amount of machining technology. Compared with the traditional sand casting process, the size of the castings obtained by investment casting is more accurate and the surface finish is better. At present, there are two main types of precision investment casting production processes, silica sol and water glass investment casting production processes. Let's talk about these two investment casting production processes.

Silica sol and water glass process casting are all lost-wax precision casting, and their difference lies in the different binders used in the shell-making process, the surface quality of the mold shell produced in this way is different, and the product finish and product quality are different.

First of all, the product castings made of silica sol casting have good surface and high dimensional accuracy, which is suitable for products with high precision and high finish, with a small shrinkage ratio and precise size, and no secondary processing is required.

The surface of the castings cast by water glass is rough, the size tolerance is large, the product quality is poor, the sand hole and shrinkage are more, the carbon steel material is used more, and the price is relatively low.

Secondly, silica sol is basically used for smaller product, and the product made of water glass lost foam is relatively large.

Finally, the castings produced by the colloidal silica casting process have high dimensional accuracy, which can reach GB/ CT4-8 grade specified in 6414-1986, the surface roughness value is low, can reach Ra0.8-6.3um, the machining allowance is small, and even no cutting processing can be realized, and the silica sol casting process can produce more complex castings with geometric switches, the small wall thickness of the casting can reach 2.5mm, the small hole diameter can reach 1mm, the casting weight: max.20kg, min.003kg, the casting length: max.500mm, min.10mm.

Twinkle Industrial can produce these two investment casting parts as drawings.