The CRP R&D department is involved in the Rapid Casting technology since 1997.
In 1998, CRP began to optimize the engineering process and the manufacturing process, studying titanium rapid casting, which is based on the combination of rapid prototyping (RP) technology, to manufacture the disposable pattern, and investment casting technology (lost wax casting) with titanium alloys.
The casting structure is formed of an aggregate of grains or polyhedral crystallites which produce isotropy compensation, while in a solid metal they are anisotropic: it is obvious that isotropy has great advantages, for instance, FEM calculations are very close to the real behaviour of the part.

The RP pattern is made by selective laser sintering technology, through a consecutive overlapping of layers. The system doesn’t require any support because the piece is held up by the non-sintered powders, therefore giving complete freedom of shape: thus reducing undercut and tool path problems during CNC machining and perfect optimization of the project to the working conditions.
It’s therefore possible to create the product along its mechanical stress axes, and to obtain a perfect reproduction of all details of the RP pattern, with tolerances and surface finishing of a very high quality (such as fully machined parts).

Rapid Casting procedure is composed of various steps:

• a disposable pattern is made through RP technique and Windform® PS;
• the pattern undergoes wax infiltrations (immersion and capillarity) to increase its strength (to avoid handling breaks);
• the pattern is immersed in a ceramic bath;
• slurries, stuccoing and exsiccation;
• the lost pattern is evacuated: dewaxing with flash firing or in an autoclave and subsequent sintering of the ceramic shell
• alloy casting with inductor or voltaic arc;
• pouring, cooling, reduction of the shell, shot peening, gate cutting, heat treatments.