Vacuum Casting (Urethane) Advantages, Uses, Tip.
Vacuum casting or cast urethanes is a perfect solution for production quality parts without the cost or lead time required for production tooling. At HLH we can cast parts large and small, everything from headphones all the way up to 2m long car bumpers. We have a massive range of materials available for your projects.
How It Works
Three stages to vacuum casting;
Master model – CNC machined or 3D printed via SLA or SLS
Silicone tool – liquid silicone is poured around the master model and cured. Once dry the master is cut from the mold to leave the cavity
Castings – the resin is poured into the cavity to create a production like replica
Advantages Of Vacuum Casting
Great for low volumes
Self-coloured parts
Low upfront investment
Production like parts
Massive range of materials
Rubber-like parts and over molds
Used For
Low volume prototypes
Low volume production
Rubber parts
Market testing
Rapid iterations
Vacuum Casting Tip
Vacuum casting enables you to quickly recreate tens of parts in production like materials allowing you to create multiple reproductions of a part for market or in-house testing. There are a number of things you can do when designing your part to ensure it is a good fit for vacuum casting.
Wall thickness is one. As with injection molding, you want consistency as far as possible and don’t want to design overly thick sections which might cause sink.