Investment casting, uses a lost wax process to create complex products with exceptionally better surfaces than sand casting process.
With thousands of years’ history, it has been the most precision casting technique favored by bicycle manufacturers. In investment casting, the liquid material is allowed to be solified into its final shape while it’s hot and slowly cools in the mold. It is a copying process that can creat thousands or even ten thousands of pieces.
Typical bicycle frame building parts can be investment-cast are:
- Head lugs
- Dropouts
- Seat clusters
- Bottom bracket shells
- Seat-stay and chain-stay bridges
- Fork crowns
Investment Casting Material: Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is the right investment casting material to produce bicycle frame building components. Although stainless steel is a little more expensive than other casting material, it has a lot of benefits. It doesn’t rust, or at least not to any great extent. It is very stronger, while riders can enjoy the riding activity. It is highly resistant to wear, it doesn’t shatter and it resists heat very well. When it was first used the friction coefficients were not as good as cast iron and this convinces some that cast iron is still the right material.
View more on stainless steel investment casting…
Investment Casting vs. Other Alternative Manufacturing Processes
- Investment Casting: This is the most common method of making high quality bicycle frame buiding components.
- Welding: This is also a common method, but intricate and time consuming.
- Machining: Possible but not really used. Wastes a lot of material.
Contact Us Today
Here at CFS Foundry, we have a broad knowledge of investment casting manufacturing for a wide range of applications including bicycle frame building components. We can provide you with our best advice according to our rich casting experience. If you have a project and would like to know whether investment casting is right for your bicycle component, please get in touch with us!
Related Articles: