Aleph Objects, Inc., manufacturers of award-winning LulzBot 3D Printers, announced two new 3D printer bundles for metal casting. These bundles combine best-in-class printer reliability with Polymaker’s PolyCast™ filament, designed specifically to replace wax patterns for investment casting.
Both bundles include everything required to create parts in days, not weeks, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. For professionals, from engineers to artisans, 3D printing for investment casting greatly improves efficiency and expands design capabilities.
The Investment Casting Process with 3D Printed Patterns
The printed pattern process reduces time required with traditional injection molded wax patterns to days versus weeks, and reduces costs from thousands to tens of dollars. The 3D printed patterns enable more complex object designs that were not possible with the lost wax method. The investment casting process enables designs to be finished in a wide range of product materials such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, platinum, gold, silver, and bronze.
PolyCast 3D printing filament enables clean burnout (ash residue of 0.003%) in comparison to other materials, easy smoothing with isopropyl alcohol, and effective sanding results. “PolyCast has been designed specifically for a very clean burn out, allowing 3D printed patterns to completely vaporize from investment molds,” said Jeff Walters, Vice President of PolyMaker. “Users can replace injection molded wax patterns, eliminating the tooling process [while] saving time and money, allowing for quicker iteration of design without committing to large minimum order quantities.”
LulzBot Metal Cast 3D Printer Bundles
The Large Metal Cast Bundle includes the LulzBot TAZ 6 3D Printer with standard 0.5 mm nozzle tool head, the HS Tool Head with an 0.8 mm nozzle for large volume prints, and four reels of 750g PolyCast filament. This bundle is ideal for creating 3D printed patterns for large metal castings up to a 12” cube, or 280 x 280 x 250 mm in size, and is perfect for prototypes, low volume manufacturing, and custom solutions. The standard 0.5 mm tool head offers a balance between speed and precision for prints with higher tolerance requirements.
The Precision Metal Cast Bundle includes the LulzBot Mini 2 3D Printer (build volume of a 6” cube , or 160 x 160 x 180 mm), the standard-equipped 0.5 mm SE Tool Head, the SL Tool Head with a 0.25 mm nozzle, and two 750g reels of PolyCast filament. Users can create highly-detailed 3D printed patterns with smooth surface finish for metal casting of jewelry and small parts with minimal post processing. The LulzBot SL Tool Head produces near-SLA (50 microns) quality positives, exceeding the 75 -125 microns that can be achieved with wax.
“The combination offered by LulzBot and Polymaker enable end users speed, accuracy, and ease-of-use not previously available in the investment casting industry,” said Grant Flaharty, Aleph Objects’ CEO and President.
Both the Large Metal Cast Bundle and the Precision Metal Cast Bundle are available for immediate shipment. Visit https://www.lulzbot.com/business-solutions for more information.
About Aleph Objects, Inc.
Aleph Objects, Inc. is the Colorado-based designer and manufacturer of the award-winning line of LulzBot® 3D Printers for rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing, educators, and professional hobbyists. Aleph Object’s core company values of Free Software, Libre Innovation, and Open Source Hardware enable users to uniquely modify both software and hardware to bring their imagination into reality. For more information, visit LulzBot.com, or for a press kit, visit http://www.lulzbot.com/press/ or email press@lulzbot.com. LulzBot is a registered trademark of Aleph Objects, Inc.
