Analyzing the Productivity and Costs Between 3D Printed Ceramic and CNC Machined Aluminum Wax Injection Tool in Lost Wax Casting

The aim of the research is to examine from different technological and economic points of view in what situations a wax press tool printed from special material with 3D technology, melting printed pieces or an aluminum press tool made by CNC machining could replace in case of single or small series production (rapid prototyping). A crucial problem in precision casting is the time to implement wax molding tools and their amortization on the requested series. The solution to this problem is to use tools made in a short time, using 3D printing and special materials to produce smaller series and individual parts. The main result is how close the surface quality of the wax piece pressed in the 3D printed tool is compared to that of the wax piece pressed in the metal tool. The software’s used throughout this research was: Solidworks 2019, ProCAST, Fusion 360, Idea Maker by Raise3D and Microsoft Excel.