Lost wax

Casting Investments. Casting investments are used to form molds into which molten metal may be cast. The cavity for receiving the metal is formed by the lost wax process. The composition of investments used for alloys cast from low (<1100° C) temperatures are different from those used for alloys cast from higher (>1300° C) temperatures. 

Inl y Casting Waxes. The three types of inlay casting waxes, ie, types A, B, and C, are used to produce wax patterns for the lost wax casting process in the production of cast gold inlays, crowns, and bridges. Some inlay wax is also used to produce patterns for acryflc restorations. 

Soluble core molding The soluble core technology (SCT) is called by different names such as soluble fusible metal core technology (FMCT), fusible core, lost-core, and lost-wax techniques (3). In this process, a core [usually molded of a low melting alloy (eutectic mixture) but can also use water soluble TPs, wax formulations, etc.] is inserted into a mold such as an injection molding mold. This core can be of thin wall or solid construction. 

Lost-wax Also called RP molding, fusible-core. A bar (or any shape) of wax is wrapped with RP. After the RP is cured (bag molding, etc.) in a simplified restrictor mold to keep the RP-wax shape, the wax is removed by drilling a hole or removing the end caps by applying a low temperature so that the RP is not effected (review in this chapter INJECTION MOLDING, Modified... 

Casting by the lost wax method entails initially creating a core of clay covered with a layer of beeswax, and modeling the outer layer of the wax in the exact pattern of the desired cast. Once the wax pattern is made, the sequence of operations listed below is generally followed (Feinberg 1983 Ammen 1979) ... 

Metal Casting Techniques. Many ancient cast metal objects were made by the cire perdue (lost wax) casting process, which involves pouring molten metal into a one-piece mold and letting it solidify modem fakes are usually cast in two halves that are then joined. A casting fin, or a fine line of filed solder on a cast object, usually reveals that the casting is modem. 

Ammen, C. W. (1979), Lost Wax Investment Casting, McGraw-Hill, New York. 

Feinberg, W. (1983), Lost Wax Casting, Interim Technology, London. 

Hunt, L. B. (1980), The long history of lost wax casting, Gold Bull. 13, 63-81. 

Jackson, H. (1978), Lost Wax Bronze Casting A Photographic Essay, Van Nostrand-Reinhold, New York. 

In the above example PZT is connected to itself in one direction while the polymer phase is interconnected in all three dimensions (1-3 connectivity). Other types of connectivities in ceramic-polymer diphasic composites (such as 2-3 or 3-3 composites) can be visualied, as in Fig. 6.57. In a 2-3 connected diphasic composite, we can, in principle, exploit two different properties of the ceramic in two different directions, or the same property in an additive manner. 3-3 composites have been made by the so-called replamine lost-wax technique. A natural template for 3-3 connectivities is... 

The Baltimore Museum of Art hosts the Cone collection including many works by Matisse. Bronze sculptures by Matisse were cast using different methods (lost wax and sand cast) and in different foundries. Ann Boulton of the Baltimore Museum of Art initiated a project aimed at determining whether or not different compositions of Matisse bronze sculptures could be correlated to different manufacturing techniques or locations. The project started while the author was a post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, now Museum Conservation Institute, and involved other analytical techniques (12). The results presented here were obtained at the Field Museum of Natural History. 

We investigated eight Matisse bronze samples that were either small pieces of metal or shavings saved from the drilling of mounting bolts. All sculptures were made using lost wax casting except for The Serf which was sand cast (Table III). 

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