THE PROCESS
A Proven Technology As Old As History
Since 1966, Dal-Air has been providing quality investment casting solutions to a wide range of industries.
We have a proud and long history of investment castings.
Dal-Air quality is not a “buzz” word; it is our focus. We have maintained the highest quality standards since we started, and has always been reflected in our final products.
Dal-Air became ISO 9001 certified in 2007 and only manufactures investment castings in our Point, Texas, USA facility. No castings are imported. We also manufacture a wide range of casting sizes in a wide range of materials.
Dal-Air Investment Castings has earned a strong reputation as a reliable supplier of quality castings and continues efforts in total improvement programs throughout its operations.
If you want a solution in investment castings, we welcome the opportunity to work with you on cost-effective, quality manufacturing results.
Contact us to discuss your manufacturing needs.
A Short History of Investment Casting
The history of investment casting or lost-wax casting dates back thousands of years. Its earliest use was for idols, ornaments, and jewelry, using natural beeswax for patterns, clay for the molds, and manually operated bellows for stoking furnaces. Examples have been found across the world in India (2500–2000 BC), Egypt’s tombs of Tutankhamun (1333–1324 BC), Mesopotamia, Aztec and Mayan Mexico, and in Africa where the process produced detailed artwork of copper, bronze, and gold.
The earliest known documentation that describes the history of the investment casting process was written around 1100 A.D. by Theophilus Presbyter, a monk who described various manufacturing processes. This book was used by sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), who detailed in his autobiography the investment casting process he used for the Perseus with the Head of Medusa sculpture that stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, Italy. The process is essentially the same today.
Investment casting became a modern industrial process in the late 19th century when dentists began using it to make crowns and inlays, as Dr. D. Philbrook of Council Bluffs, Iowa, described in 1897. Its use was accelerated by Dr. William H. Taggart of Chicago, whose 1907 paper described his development of a technique. He also formulated a wax pattern compound of excellent properties, developed an investment material, and invented the air-pressure casting machine.
In the 1940s, World War II increased the demand for precision net-shape manufacturing and specialized alloys that traditional methods could not shape or required too much machining. Industry turned to investment casting.
After the war, its use spread to many commercial and industrial applications that used complex metal parts.
Today, investment casting is a tried and true approach to manufacturing close tolerance and complex shaped parts. It has many advantages in modern metal manufacturing.