The Dean Group do not just offer investment castings or lost wax castings, the range encompasses commercial grade investment castings, sand castings and die castings.
As part of their pro active sourcing policy they are now able to source quality extruded parts in both aluminium and brass. Because extrusion has a relatively low labour content, savings over UK production are not as significant as with investment casting; however, if there are subsequent processes involved, drilling/ tapping of holes, cutting to length etc, significant savings are still possible.
This rule applies generally to all the process they source; the more added value that can be applied, the larger the savings. This is particularly true with investment castings where parts could be post machined, electo polished, mechanically hand polished, plated and assembled.

Labels: sourcing

In today’s global market a large percentage of the UK’s manufactured goods come from the Far East, where labour is still relatively cheap.
This is still particularly true where products, such as investment castings, have a large labour content in the manufacturing process.
The Dean Group have invested heavily in the latest manufacturing techniques, in automation and robotics, to try and remain competitive and our UK prices are still the most competitive on a like for like basis. But for larger volume work, the Far East still offer significant benefits for the lost wax process.
The key to success in sourcing from this region is to retain total control of the process parameters and quality procedures and this is where the Dean Group offers the most significant benefits over less technically able sourcing companies. The very reason for choosing the lost wax process for your parts is usually to achieve the very best quality part from a dimensional and surface finish aspect. Investment casting is a highly technical and multi staged process; failure to control any one aspect of this process will have an impact on the subsequent investment casting.
There are a vast number of potential sources in the Far East for investment casting but only a few that can offer the quality and service that we demand in the UK. There are less still that are interested in the smaller accounts. This is where the Dean Group scores again; as we already source a huge range of parts from our supply partners we are able to add relatively small accounts, and offer exactly the same benefits to our range of customers. As one of our supply partner’s largest customers we are able to demand the very best levels of service for our lost wax/ investment castings.

Labels: investment castings, sourcing

The human rights and moral issues are at the forefront of DGI’s thoughts when sourcing supply partners in China. DGI have been dealing with their main investment casting foundry for eight years now, the two companies growing together and sharing knowledge and techniques to continually improve the lost wax process and quality and consistency of product.
Many people’s perception of China foundries is of cramped and poor working conditions, shoddy or non existent health and safety and child labour. This could not be further from the truth. Our main investment casting foundry employs in excess of a thousand people with on site living accommodation if required and a real ethos and understanding for working conditions and health and safety.
Investment is also key. The facility is brand new having moved from a rather old foundry and the standard of equipment is impressive. And the investment is ongoing, if they have an increased demand then new machines are brought in immediately.
DGI have also invested heavily in time and training and continuous improvement systems to ensure that they remain one step ahead of the competition and continue to provide the very best tailored service for investment castings, sand castings and die castings.

Labels: sourcing

DGI have experienced significant growth in demand for aluminium investment castings in the last few months. Aluminium has always been a relatively small part of the UK investment casting portfolio, most of the lost wax casting being in carbon and stainless steel and other non ferrous materials.
DGI have been developing the process for aluminium casting and results are now significantly improved. The quality of investment casting that is now achieved is consistent and of extremely good quality. Minor surface finish issues that were experienced from time to time have now been overcome with subtle changes to the process.
DGI can now offer a wide range of investment cast aluminium parts with full confidence that yield and quality will be as high as other materials that are cast.

Labels: investment casting, investment castings, lost wax process

Conventional lost wax castings are produced using a hollow ceramic shell. The metal is poured in and the mould is allowed to cool, either at room temperature or with forced air cooling. The resultant investment casting was a rather unrefined grain structure so to optimize the mechanical properties of the casting, various heat treatment processes are undertaken. This could be simply an annealing process or may be more involved with parts being soaked at a specific temperature and potentially oil or water quenched. Mechanical properties can be found in the technical section on DGI's web site.

Labels: investment castings

Investment casting has been around for thousands of years and essentially, the technique is still the same today. A mould is produced in wax and this is "invested" into ceramic. Once the ceramic shell has been formed the wax is removed, usually with high pressure steam and this is where the term lost wax casting comes from. The process is then completed by firing the shell and pouring in the required material, removing the shell by vibration and shot blasting and applying any additional processes such as heat treatment, machining, plating or painting.

Labels: lost wax process

Investment casting, or Lost wax casting as it is also known, is ideal for casting "near to shape parts" in a variety of high and low temperature materials including carbon steel, stainless steel, brass, bronze and aluminum.The accuracy achievable with investment castings reduces significantly the amount of machining required thus keeping the overall part price down.Whilst the process of investment casting is quite labour intensive the savings gained from reduced on processes makes it ideal for certain applications.

Labels: investment casting