Description
Clear Cast Resin for 3D printing of Form 4 patterns
Clear Cast Resin for Form 4 is a high-precision material designed for 3D printing metal casting molds. Designed to directly print patterns that can be fired and cast, the resin has extremely low thermal expansion, low ash content, and no traces of heavy metals.
Formlabs Clear Cast Resin 1L is designed to 3D print accurate, low-ash, precision investment casting patterns on the Formlabs Form 4 printer directly in your workshop.
Clear Cast Resin in combination with gridding software is recommended for use with larger parts, allowing for geometries over 3 mm thick.
Resin for metal casting – features and benefits
- Affordable in-house production of patterns. Clear Cast Resin allows you to directly produce casting patterns on the Formlabs Form 4 SLA 3D printer in-house, which reduces costs, shortens lead times, and improves iteration and production flexibility.
- Clean burn-in. The clear cast resin provides a clean burn with low ash content and no trace of metals, leaving nothing to contaminate the final molded part.
- Low thermal expansion. Best-in-class thermal expansion for reliable casting shells with minimal cracking.
- Precise and versatile. Create accurate models within 0.25 mm of the design. Compatible with any metal or shell system, enabling foundries to cast new designs in record time
- Built on experience. Formlabs produces industry-leading resins for third-party large SLA printers at its state-of-the-art Ohio facility and uses this experience to develop Clear Cast Resin for its own SLA printers.
- Short lead times and low cost. Receive finished metal templates in as little as 1-3 days at a cost 3 times less than traditional ones.
Application of Clear Cast resin for metal casting
Today, investment casting is used in many industries that require individual production of precision metal parts: engine parts, turbines, medical implants, surgical instruments, dental prostheses, jewelry, souvenirs and decorative elements, various complex components for industry, etc.
3D printing of fired models for metal casting
Investment casting is a production process in which liquid material is poured into a ceramic mold containing a cavity of the desired shape and then allowed to solidify.
It is an ancient method of producing metal parts that allows for the production of complex shapes and high precision products and has reached a new level of development thanks to modern technology. Die casting is time-consuming and expensive for small runs or prototypes.
How does 3D printing help to cast precision metal products?
The main idea behind the innovation in metal investment casting is to 3D print an exact copy of the future part. The traditional way to produce such a copy was to make it from wax, which was a rather labor-intensive process.
Next, the 3D printed template is covered with a refractory material, such as ceramic. After the refractory mixture has hardened, the printed template is melted, forming a cavity of the exact shape of the part. Molten metal is poured into this cavity, filling the entire space and taking the shape of the template. After cooling and removal of the casting system, the finished product is obtained.
Other Formlabs burnable Resins comparison
The Formlabs material library already contains burnable resins for printing metal casting molds and patterns. These are Castable Wax and Castable Wax 40. What is the difference between them?
Use Formlabs burnable materials for the following cases:
- Castable Wax – for printing patterns for lightweight jewelry.
- Castable Wax 40 – for printing more massive metal casting molds with a wall thickness of up to 3 mm.
- Clear Cast – printing molds with a thickness of more than 3 mm, suitable for most engineering applications.
Workflow for 3D printing of casting patterns based on models
3D printed molds (templates) can be used to directly replace molded wax patterns commonly used for investment casting, allowing for the creation of complex geometries and faster iterations without special tools. The process of creating a 3D printed pattern is usually as follows:
- Create shells, mesh, and add drainage holes to the part using a tool such as Materialize Magics or Formware.
- Orient the supports and cut the model in PreForm.
- Print the template.
- Wash, refine, and remove the supports.
- Seal any drainage holes with wax or apply a small amount of Clear Cast resin to the hole.
- Attach the pattern to the casting tree and continue the casting process.
Clear Cast mechanical and burnout properties
- Ultimate Tensile Strength – 65 MPa
- Tensile Modulus – 2.8 GPa
- Flexural Modulus – 2.2 GPa
- Thermal Expansion, -30-140°C – 94.8 μm/m/°C
- Ash Content – <0.20%
- Antimony – <10 ppm
- Detected Transition Metals (>10 ppm) – Al, Cu
- High Concentration Transition Metals (>50 ppm) – None
Downloads:
Technical Data Sheet, PDF (EN)
Buy Clear Cast resin for Form 4 in Ukraine
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