Stainless Steel Investment Casting Valves

2022-05-03

Stainless Steel valves, because of its unique properties of anti-corrosion and extreme temperature resistance, are widely used in various industries, such as Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Water, Oil and Gas, Food and Beverage, etc. 

The main components of Stainless Steel valves including valve bodies and caps, can be made from Investment Casting, Sand Casting or Forging. Hereinafter, we would like to introduce Stainless Steel Investment Casting valves with below questions and answers for a better understanding.

1.What are the types for Stainless Steel Investment Casting Valves?

Solenoid valve, Control valve, Angle seat valve, Ball valve, Gate valve, Globe valve, Check valve, Butterfly valve, etc.

2.What’s the range of valve size and class that could be made from Stainless Steel Investment casting?

Valve size and class within DN15~DN150, PN10~PN50.

3.What’s the process of Investment casting?

Investment casting, also called as Lost-wax casting, its main production processes include wax injection, wax tree building, shell molding, shell baking, metal smelting & pouring, shell vibration, casting cutting, grinding, heat treatment, shot blasting, calibration, and surface treatment if required.

4.What are the advantages of Investment casting?

Silica-sol shell making method is the most preferred Investment casting process, it’s combined with medium temperature wax, widely applied to more sophisticated parts such as valve bodies, pump housings, impellers, engines, etc. The coating used in this method has good stability, high temperature resistance and better deformation resistance. Compared with other casting methods, such as Water-glass casting, Composite mold casting or Sand casting, Silica-sol has a better dimensional accuracy and surface quality. 

In general, the outstanding features of Investment casting lie in the following aspects:

-High dimensional accuracy, generally up to CT4-6 (CT10~13 for sand casting, CT5~7 for die casting). 

-Good surface quality, generally up to Ra.1.6~3.2μm. 

-Because of its high dimensional accuracy and good surface quality, investment casting process can reduce the machining work, for parts requiring more strict tolerances, we can leave a little allowance for machining. It can be seen that the investment casting process can greatly save raw materials, processing time and machining tools. 

-Investment casting process can make complex castings of various alloys, especially high temperature alloy castings. For example, the blade of jet engine, its streamlined outer profile and cooling inner cavity, almost impossible to form by machining process. Investment casting process can not only achieve mass production, ensure the consistency of castings, but also avoid the stress concentration after machining.