Published - 27th Jul 2022
How Investacast meets the demands of performance-critical applications
Every casting we produce must meet precise specifications in terms of its chemical composition, mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy. In this article we look at Investment Casting processes – testing and inspection used to ensure our products meet the exact demands of the customer.
Investacast has produced castings for safety critical applications for over 50 years, supplying a range of components including safety interlocks, climbing equipment and explosion-proof enclosures to industries from aerospace and defence to oil and gas.
Safety is critical in such industries. ATEX certification is required to ensure safety in the workplace by determining whether equipment is suitable for operation in a potentially explosive environment. IECEx Certification performs a similar function for markets outside the EU. Investacast is able to confirm product conformance with relevant standards, though certification remains the customer’s responsibility.
Our castings are thoroughly inspected before leaving our facility, to check performance against agreed standards and CTQ dimensions.
CMMs are sometimes the only way to measure manufactured parts, as they are extremely accurate and measure to within a few microns. Following a programme agreed with the customer, the CMM will measure parts consistently and accurately against the drawn specification.
In addition to our in-house CMM we also have a vision measurement system with fully integrated touch probe capability and CNC programming – effectively a vision measurement and CMM in one package.
Other gauges such as screw plug gauges, bore gauges, micrometers, verniers and bespoke gauges are regularly used as part of our in-process and final inspections.
Chemical composition is assured and routine PMI checks are carried out using our onsite spectrometer. Material hardness and surface roughness inspection is also carried out in our temperature-controlled measurement laboratory.
Investacast has built a strong reputation for high quality manufacturing and supply, thanks in part to our robust quality control system – we ensure stringent quality checks at every stage of the manufacturing process, from design reviews all the way through to quality controls in the warehouse prior to product delivery.
First off (sample) checks and documentation supplied to the customer include ISIR, FAI and PPAP, and always include a full dimensional check against the supplied drawing.
All inspection is carried out by our fully trained inspectors in accordance with a documented inspection procedure which defines the required checks, equipment to be used, and inspection frequency.
We have been audited directly by the British Standards Institute (BSI) since 1992, with the UK manufacturing facility and supply partners accredited the BS EN ISO 9001:2015 quality management system certificate.
We also ensure all our supply partners are accredited to a minimum of ISO9001:2015, with many having additional accreditations including TS16949, AS9100 and PED.
Investacast work with global companies across many sectors supplying investment castings, pressure die castings, gravity die castings, forgings, metal injection moulded (MIM) components and precision machined parts to our customers’ requirements. We are highly experienced and expert in producing high integrity castings with exacting non-destructive testing and traceability requirements.
If you would like to know more about our testing, inspection and accreditation methods, please contact Matthew Cooper at Investacast on +44 (0) 1271 866200 or email [email protected].
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