Nexa3D has announced the commercial availability of a new material tailored for the additive manufacture of investment casting patterns on its NXE400 machine.

The xCast material is said to be idea for the foundry series production of small, large and complex metal parts in a variety of industrial sectors. It is said to be a more scalable alternative to other 3D printing solutions on the market, boasting cleaner burnout for a variety of materials, including titanium and aluminium; faster pattern printing for a variety of sizes; and 20 times the productivity of traditional and additive alternatives.

Nexa3D used the xCast material in a recent project for Arcimoto’s Fun Utility Vehicle to design complex and lightweight patters for generatively designed parts and assemblies. Here, multiple parts were combined to produce components that are not possible using traditional injected wax patterns. One application, the vehicle’s steering knuckle, had its investment casting printed in a tenth of the cost and time compared to Direct Metal Laser Sintering, while also enabling a 36% weight reduction compared to a nine-piece weldment.

With capabilities such as this, Nexa3D believe the xCast material can seamlessly integrate into any production foundry’s dip-shell or flask-type investment casting process. Combining the material with the NXE400 and the NexaX Digital Twin Printing software, Nexa says users can also ensure part performance, consistency and higher yields, while reducing material usage, waste and energy consumption per part.

“We are thrilled to digitise parts within the investment casting process, while bringing 20X productivity gains to foundries,” commented Brent Zollinger, Head of Customer Success for Nexa3D. “Having spent over two decades in the investment casting industry as a heavy user, it’s a privilege to be part of its transformation. What is particularly significant is that xCast patterns printed on the NXE 400 dramatically reduce the cost of traditional investment casting patterns by as much as 90% while being produced in one-tenth of the time.”

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