Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Study On The Viability Of Preparing Plaster Molds For Rapid Prototyping Of Complex Ceramic Parts Using The Lost Pla Method, Shelton F. Fowler Iv

Honors College Theses

In the field of metal casting, cast parts often require an internal cavity to be made to meet design requirements. Frequently, these interior surfaces are not manufacturable through standard machining processes, and even when possible, they would most likely involve expensive and time-consuming operations. In order to avoid these machining costs, expendable ceramic or sand cores are manufactured and placed into the mold to allow the direct casting of complex internal geometries. This research seeks to use relatively inexpensive plastic 3D printing technology and the lost PLA casting process for the production of low-cost and rapidly producible ceramic cores. A …