INVESTMENT CASTING TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES COST EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE TO MACHINING
Investment casting requires less alloy than conventional machining and reduces the time needed to machine cast parts. These advantages result in reduced overall costs for fabricators.
Materion’s proprietary and patented aluminum beryllium (Al Be) composite investment casting process delivers these cost savings for fabricators, investment casting is used in a wide variety of optical and aerospace and applications including: support structures, housings, gimbals, covers, chassis, rings and enclosures.
UNIQUE QUALITIES FOR OPTIMIZED PERFORMANCE
The unique properties of investment cast Al-Be alloy make it the preferred material for a variety of applications:
- High Stiffness. The high stiffness of investment cast Al-Be makes it a preferred material for optical support structures and high-speed precision assembly equipment.
- Low Density. Investment cast Al-Be has a lower density than aluminum, allowing it to serve as a replacement material in weight critical applications.
- Vibration Damping. Investment cast Al-Be also provides good vibration damping properties. This is an added benefit for optical and high-speed precision assembly equipment.
OFFERING MORE OPTIONS FOR DEMANDING MATERIAL NEEDS
Materion investment casting composites are fabricated using processes which mirror standard aluminum industry practices, and can handle machining, joining, bending and coating operations. Our investment casting process results in materials with improved properties and performance that are easy to fabricate and cost Effective.
Materion products from this investment casting technology resulted in AlBeCast®composite. This composite aluminum beryllium investment casting composite is available in two types:
THE ALBECAST® COMPOSITE DESIGN GUIDE
This publication provides an overview of our AlBeCast aluminum beryllium investment casting process. AlBeCast offers favorable properties for avionics and aerospace systems and as a composite made through casting it can require less input material. This document is intended to help engineers understand the aluminum beryllium casting process capabilities, process limitations and typical properties.
Talk to one of our engineers about your investment casting needs today.