A new phosphate-bonded investment material for rapid ceramic molding of medium-size castings

Phosphate-bonded investment (PBI) ceramic mold materials have outstanding properties, such as rapid setting rate, moderate green strength and high temperature strength, and could be widely utilized in dental restoration and micro-casting of artistic products. However, fast hydration and gel rate of the phosphate-bonded ceramic slurry has been an obstacle to the wide applications of ceramic mold material for medium and large-size precision castings. This paper presents a new phosphate-bonded ceramic mold material by modifying the composition of refractory aggregates and additive agents, which is promising to be used for rapid ceramic mold casting for medium-size super alloy components. The results indicate that the properties of ceramic mold slurry including initial setting time and fluidity are suitable for complete embedding medium-scale patterns and get accurate duplicate of external configurations when the amount of boric acid is 1.11wt% and sodium tri-poly phosphate (STP) is 0.92wt%. The strength of ceramic mold material can resist impact force when pouring molten metal and easy take casting out from ceramic mold.