Advanced Pattern Material

FOPAT LLC of Dayton Ohio has developed an advanced, dimensionally accurate, temperature-stable, energy-efficient and cost-effective material and process to manufacture patterns for the investment casting industry. Manufacturing of aircraft engine components affordably and accurately is highly dependent on the capabilities and limitations of the investment casting process. The present method for investment casting, “The Lost Wax” process, uses wax as a pattern material, which is then melted out or ‘lost’ from the ceramic shell. The molten metal is then poured into the ceramic shell to produce a metal casting. This process goes back thousands of years and while there have been improvements in the wax composition, the pattern material has always been the same, wax. In the proposed technology, FOPAT (a FOam PATtern material) has been developed which is especially compatible with the investment casting process. FOPAT’s team of CTM, the machine builder, Harrington, the material developer, S&A Consulting Group, the investment casting experts, and buyCASTINGS the commercialization outlet and program manager has successfully demonstrated the proposed innovation in Phase I and proposes to optimize, scale-up, and commercialize the technology in Phase II while meeting the Air Force’s and Advanced Manufacturing Propulsion Initiative Casting Consortium (AMPICC’s) cost reduction goals.