Due to the nature of sand and its ability to withstand extremely high temperatures, sand can easily accommodate molten metals for casting. Shrink-adjusted SLA patterns are used directly as sand casting patterns or are used to create core boxes, cope and drag tooling, or match plates for the sand casting process. Sand casting may be best for production runs of few to 100 parts. Sand casting is more suitable for thick section wall parts that do not require fine details and high quality surface finishes. Due to the fact that parts designed for sand casting have thicker walls, the shrink factor of the metal is not as predictable as investment cast parts and therefore a high degree of accuracy should not be expected from prototypes made by the sand casting process.

Sand Casting Highlights

Sand Casting is the ideal choice for:

• Castings requiring thick sections and heavy weights
• Medium volume production runs of over 100 parts

Material choices include

• Aluminum
• Cast Iron or Gray Iron
• Bronze
• Stainless Steel
• Other non-ferrous metals

Dimensional tolerances:

• +/- 0.030” to +/- .050”

Turn-around:

• 2 to 4 weeks

Quantities:

• 5 to 100 parts

Finishing types:

• 250 RPM bead blast
• Machining