By: CBS4 News, newsroom@cbs4qc.com
It's one of the oldest ways of making metal parts, but "investment casting" is still paying dividends.
They can make almost any part for any piece of equipment used by the military. With investment casting, workers say the possibilities are endless.
"Whatever I can make out of wax will end up a metal part," said Matt Alongi, Investment Casting Worker, "whether it be steel, aluminum, brass or titanium, we can do it."
The process starts with nothing more than wax pellets.
"Drop it into this tank where it gets melted into liquid wax."
From there, the hot wax is poured into a mold and cooled instantly.
"There we have our part - this is an exact replica of what our metal part will look like."
Once several wax molds are made, workers like Matt will glue the parts together to form a tree.
"So now when they pour into this shell into the cup, the metal will flow down through here to each of the parts."
A robotic arm takes the trees and dips them into a sort of paper mache on steroids. 00:34:00 "the computer takes sole control of it and does all the thinking from here on out."
Each tree gets dipped eight times into the liquid, making a thicker coat with each dip.
"Now it's dipping in the rainfall sander."
Once the tree hardens up, it's time to melt away all the wax and pour in the metal. All that's left is chipping off the leftover ceramic coat.
And there you have it, from wax to the final product, a part is made.
Coming up next week, we show you why workers say of all metals, titanium is the future of weapons manufacturing.
