Investment casting, also known as “lost wax casting” or “investment casting”, has been widely used for centuries and is known for producing components with excellent surface finish, dimensional accuracy and complex shapes. It is particularly useful for the manufacture of complex or near-final shape castings where machining may not be possible or would be too wasteful of raw materials to machine. For our customers, cost is clearly one of the most important factors in choosing a supplier.
This article will deal with the main factors affecting the cost of finish castings.
- Raw material cost
The cost depends to some extent on the metal alloy. Among steel castings, stainless steel castings are the most expensive high-grade stainless steel. The material cost of stainless steel castings depends on the material grade. SS316 (L) will be more expensive than SS304 (L). Compared to steel castings, cast iron parts are much cheaper due to the lower cost of ferrous alloys. Of course, for the same material, the cost may change at different times. Therefore, when the material cost is low, the buyer will get cheap castings.
2.Casting cost
- casting system yield
Casting system yield is the casting of the actual weight of the product as a percentage of the weight of the entire casting system. Unit weight casting cost is inversely proportional to the yield. The lower the yield, the greater the cost.
For a given investment casting, yield is equal to the total weight of investment castings on the same tree, divided by the percentage of the weight of the entire tree. It is related to the structure of the investment casting and the tree program. It can vary from 30% to 60%, mostly between 40% and 50%. The lower the casting yield, the higher the cost.
The relationship between front-end cost (cost before casting) and yield is that the front-end cost per kilogram of casting is inversely proportional to the yield. The lower the yield, the higher the front-end investment casting cost per unit weight. If the lower the yield rate, the impact on the cost increase will be greater.
On the other hand, some precision castings, especially the shape of irregular thin-walled castings, due to the limitations of the casting system structure design, will lead to a substantial reduction in the yield rate, in determining the price of precision casting, should take into account this important factor.
- casting process
Precision casting plants need to check that the rough casting process can be used to produce rough castings, some plants may use wet sand, others may use resin sand, shell casting and automatic molding processes. Wet sand is cheaper, while shell casting is the most expensive. Relevant factors include dimensional tolerances, surface quality, structural complexity, annual demand, weight and size. These factors will affect the cost of the rough casting. Of course, if the casting process does not meet the requirements of the product and the order, then other suitable processes will have to be chosen.
Here, we will also discuss the possibility of manufacturing investment cast parts using water glass investment casting and silicone solvent investment casting techniques. Silica sol casting will result in finish castings with better dimensional accuracy and surface finish. Therefore the cost will be higher than water glass casting. Of course, water glass castings are more acceptable to customers due to their lower production costs. However, if more precise tolerances and surface finish are required, silica gel casting is preferred.
- Number of shell layers
Due to different casting shapes and structures, cast shells require different layers. For example, for castings with elongated holes or grooves, more layers are needed compared to normal castings. And the larger the casting, the more layers are needed.
In general, the cost of raw and auxiliary materials accounts for 60%, fuel and power for 25%, and wages for 15%. Among the auxiliary materials, the consumption of zirconium sand and zirconium powder accounts for about 60%, accounting for 45% of the total cost of shell making, and the cost of silica sol is about 13% of the cost of shell.
- Subsequent processing costs
Processing cost is usually calculated by processing difficulty. The more difficult the processing, the higher the cost. At the same time, the annual demand is also an important factor affecting the processing cost.
- Other costs
Fuel and Power Costs: BSS Casting is committed to the pursuit of sustainable reduction of energy consumption. In recent years, we have been studying environmentally friendly energy-consuming equipment introduced by equipment manufacturers in the industry, and through the procurement of more energy-efficient equipment, we have been able to achieve the goal of reducing energy consumption on a sustainable basis.
Labor Costs: In China, although labor costs continue to rise, they are much lower than in developed countries. Manufacturing precision castings in Europe and the US is very expensive. But Poland and Italy, led by the European countries in the casting price has been a strong rival of the Chinese foundry enterprises, not to mention the technology and management of the more mature India. Therefore, our Chinese foundry enterprises should put more efforts in the automation equipment investment and improvement, with really good technology and management for the world to provide high quality and cost-effective casting parts.
Program costs, including the required quantity and delivery time: larger quantities and relatively loose delivery time will help our customers get lower prices.
Packaging and transportation cost: We can package casting parts suitable for import and export by sea, air and land according to customers’ requirements. Usually, we will protect the products with cartons and then put them into customized size wooden crates for export. For more careful packing, the cost will be higher.
Exchange rate cost, the fluctuation of exchange rate is also one of the management cost for us to supply castings to our global customers.
English 
German 
French 
Italian 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Czech 
Turkish 
Russian 
Dutch