Water Tap Splitter

In the past few years we have written several times about the advantages that 3D printing has for the casting industry. You can find the links to those articles at the end of this blog. Today we show you a practical example of a water tap splitter and how 3D printing not only saves time in the development process, but also saves costs significantly.

Water tap splitter design by colorFabb

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Using 3D printing in investment casting reduces cost and adds flexibility to the process. PLA/PHA is a natural choice for this process where the entire print is burned out. What started thousands of years ago with beeswax has now evolved to patterns made with 3D printing. The printed pattern is coated with ceramic, then the printed pattern is burned out and the metal poured into remaining shell leaving a complete casting.

 

The original which we replicated for this blog

Instead of investing in tooling to produce a wax pattern, foundry companies can choose to 3D print their patterns in a material suited for investment casting. ColorFabb PLA/PHA Natural is a material uniquely suited for investment casting. It’s an easy printing material capable of creating complex shapes with great smooth surface finish and will work with most desktop and industrial type FFF 3D printing machines.

For this print we used the Stacker S4 XL. Printing 4 pieces at a time took about 22 hours at 0.12mm layer height and each part weighs approximately 140 grams (and is eventually turned into a 1kg of stainless steel part when all is said and done).

With the colorFabb PLA/PHA filament we can enable the investment casting with more easy access to small volume production. Prototyping and small batches of patterns can now be 3D printed, eliminating the need for mould making to save both the costs and time needed for this process. This also ties in nicely with new design trends such as Generative Design, allowing Investment Casting to be an interesting alternative to 3D printing metal for various applications.

Below are the steps taken after we finished the print:

Putting the print on the wax tree

 

Putting the tree in the sand

 

Drying the tree

 

Filling the tree with steel

 

The end result

One of the big advantages of FDM/FFF 3D printing in this case is the decrease of costs. This part was made for about € 100 (compared to much higher costs elsewhere for a similar one-off production:

 

About Stacker

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 5 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another. We recently published two blogs about Dutch companies Optima and Mifa and their use of Stacker 3D printers.

The Stacker printers are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make them versatile printers. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This Minneapolis, USA, based manufacturer produces highly reliable printers and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

The Stacker S4 XL has a bigger build volume than its smaller siblings and other advantages:

  • Huge Build Volume 610 x 610 x 610mm (24 x 24 x 24″)
  • Closed loop servos for ZERO lost steps
  • Compatible with Stacker’s Direct Direct drive extruder
  • Four Print Heads for 4X print speeds
  • High Precision Linear Motion
  • Amazing Print Quality
  • Works with almost any Filament

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

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Previous posts about investment casting:

Use of 3D Printing in Investment Casting

Last year we learned that 3D printing was used to drastically shorten time and costs in investment casting. Dutch company CIREX B.V. is an expert in investment casting and is exploring the added value 3D printing can bring to their process together with colorFabb.

We partnered with CIREX to better understand how PLA/PHA performs as a material for patterns. We have written exensively about this filament before. Traditionally investment casting uses wax patterns. These patterns are made using metal molds, making the tooling is an expensive process and can take several weeks.

For small series, or one off products creating a mold is not a cost effective solution for foundry companies. 3D printing on the other hand presents several advantages enabling foundries to make single parts or even small series.

Instead of investing in tooling, foundry companies can choose to 3D print their patterns in a material suited for investment casting. ColorFabb PLA/PHA Natural is a material uniquily suited for investment casting. It’s an easy printing material capable of creating complex shapes with great smooth surface finish and will work with most desktop and industrial type FFF 3D printing machines.

The material decomposes at 600C and ensures a clean burnout leaving behind a clean mold ready for casting.

Almost a year ago we highlighted US based Spectra3D’s work in investment casting, using the Stacker S4 and our signature PLA/PHA. Jerry LePore, CEO of Spectra3D explains why he chose PLA/PHA: “We chose Colorafab natural PLA because it contains no color pigments, prints great and burns out really clean from the mold.” You can read the full blog here.

Cut down on development time

Skipping the tooling development step saves a huge amount of time. Typically this could shorten the time to a first metal casted part by 3-4 weeks. Not being dependent on a third party mold supplier also reduces risk in time sensitive projects.

A wax tree with the printed models

3D printing also allows for faster design iterations, a first printed pattern could already be made in several hours depending on the size of the part. This makes it possible to iterate on the design multiple times even within a single day.

The material cost of printed patterns is around €30,- p/kg. Parts are generally printed with the least amount of material needed, which saves print time and material.

Checking out the burnout of PLA/PHA Natural, breaking the mold to inspect pattern for residue. Patterns printed on the Stacker S4, 0.2mm layer height at 20% infill.

 

3D Printer & Material combination

The Stacker 3D printer was used for this test case. It prints incredibly reliable with PLA/PHA and is able to print parts accurate and consistent. Printing with multiple nozzles cuts down on series production time, 2x faster for the Stacker S2 and 4x faster for the Stacker S4 compared to a single nozzle FFF 3D printer.

The Stacker S2 and S4 can be set-up for small series production, or single large part printing. Mounting up to 4 toolheads on the x-carriage gives the user higher output, but reduces the build volume. The alternative is to mount only a single toolhead and take advantage of the entire buildvolume of the S2 or S4.

Products larger then the build volume of the Stacker can be split into multple parts and assembled after printing. Using pins align the parts is a good method to ensure the assembled model is accurate.

The Stacker S2 and its larger sibling the Stacker S4 is an industrial grade FFF 3D printer. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make it a versatile printer. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

colorFabb is proud partner of Stacker and official distributor for the EMEA region. At colorFabb we have been extensively testing with both the S2 and S4 in our print lab with our entire range of filaments.

 

About CIREX

The history of the current CIREX starts in 1947. In the physics laboratory of Philips in Eindhoven, an experimental wax model foundry was set up. From these beginnings CIREX has developed as a development partner and producer of high-quality precision castings in steel, produced according to the “lost wax” process. CIREX has built up a good reputation and recognition among international customers.

You can find more information about CIREX’ rich history on their website.

 

colorFabb Case Studies

This blog is a first in a new series of how colorFabb filaments are used in different industries – some old, some new. We will collect these case studies as downloadable PDFs on our website: Click here.