Morgan Advanced Materials (MTC) Certech has pioneered a new manufacturing technique which strengthens its ceramic cores used in the investment casting process by 20-30%. The ceramic cores, which are used to cast high performance aerospace and industrial turbine blades, can now be manufactured with a tougher coating, enabling customers to improve yields and achieve associated cost savings.
MTC Certech manufactures high quality ceramic cores using a proprietary low-pressure injection moulding and firing process. The cores are then coated using a new urea impregnation method, which gives them a tough coating.
Traditionally a PVA glue coating is used, but through using this new technique, MTC Certech has increased the strength of its ceramic cores significantly. As a result, they are less susceptible to fracture and failure during the manufacturing process of turbine blades and customers can achieve increased product output with reduced wastage.
MTC Certech's cores allow the creation of internal cavities with highly complex geometries during the investment casting process. Thin sections of 0.5 mm and tolerances of up to +/-0.08mm can be achieved.
"This is a major breakthrough for the investment casting process and enables the design of stronger cores with increased performance," says Rob Park, operations manager at MTC Certech. "At MTC Certech, we continually innovate and invest in the investment casting process and our applications engineers work closely with customers to enhance the design and manufacturing process of their products. I'm delighted we can now offer them stronger cores, which enable them to manufacture high quality parts repeatedly."
"We can offer them full technical engineering solutions and expertise to improve their whole manufacturing process, from design right through to production."
The company's experts use the very latest flow modeling software to design its high performance cores which can be manufactured in high volume and short lead-time. MTC Certech can generate sample volumes as quickly as five days and routinely produces production volumes with a two-week lead-time.