Due to its complexity and labor requirements, investment casting is a relatively expensive process – however the benefits often outweigh the cost. Practically any metal can be investment cast. Parts manufactured by investment casting are normally small, but the process can be used effectively for parts weighing 130 lbs or more.

Investment casting is capable of producing complex parts with excellent as-cast surface finishes. Investment castings do not need to have taper built in to remove the components from their molds because the ceramic shells break away from the part upon cooling. This production feature allows castings with 90-degree angles to be designed with no shrinkage allowance built-in, and with no additional machining required to obtain those angles.

The investment casting process creates parts with superior dimensional accuracy; net-shape parts are easily achievable, and finished forms are often produced without secondary machining. Each unique casting run requires a new die to produce wax patterns. Tooling for investment casting can be quite cheap; depending on the complexity, tooling costs can run anywhere between $500 and $1,500.

For high volume orders, the time and labor saved by eliminating or decreasing secondary machining easily makes up for the cost of new tooling. Small casting runs are less likely to make up for the investment. Generally, investment casting is a logical choice for a run of 100 parts or more.

It usually takes 15 days to go from a fresh wax pattern to a complete casting; the majority of that time is taken up by creating and drying the ceramic shell mold. The time and labor-intensive nature of investment casting doesn’t only effect cost, so longer lead times for investment casting are common.