Investment Casting Using Additive Manufacturing: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions - A Review Paper

To meet current demands, it is vital to blend new production technology with traditional ways. Additive manufacturing, often known as 3-Dimensional printing, is a rapidly expanding technology that has been widely adopted by various industries, and the foundry industry is one of them. Additive manufacturing (AM) is essential to the industry's fourth industrial revolution, which intends to bring about progressive improvements in business transactions by establishing a smart production system. Industry 4.0 has arrived in new markets that are focused on delighting customers by adding value to products and services. With its ability to produce parts with complex geometries that are otherwise difficult or impossible to create using other manufacturing processes, the foundry industry plays a significant role among other manufacturing industries. A new age for the foundry business can be ushered in by merging additive manufacturing technologies with the casting process. The traditional casting method is complicated, time-consuming, and requires expensive tooling. It is not cost-effective to make mould, cores, or patterns for small production runs. The combination of these two processes offers a new approach to investment casting, where 3D printing is used to create the wax patterns used in the investment casting process. This approach has several advantages, such as increased design flexibility, reduced lead time, and improved part quality. This study includes different AM technologies, materials, and their applications in casting industries. Recent developments, challenges, and future scope in the field of hybrid investment casting are discussed at the end of this paper.