(Zhejiang Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 311305, China)

 

 

Abstract: Aiming at the problem that wax injection mold with complex shape can not be  rapid manufactured in precision casting industry, a rapid wax injection mold manufacturing process based on the 3D printing technology was studied, with an unshrouded centrifugal pump impeller as the application example. Firstly the impeller model was established, the workpiece and the parting surface were created, and the mold models were created and optimized in turn by Pro/E. Secondly the mold models were pre\|processed by RPData. The resin molds were directly produced by the 3D printer with the imported models. Then the metal resin molds were produced by filling metal resin mixture into the inside of the resin molds after post\|processing. Finally the centrifugal pump impeller wax models were produced by injecting the wax material into the metal resin molds. The results indicate that the dimensional accuracy of the wax models can reach 0.1 mm and the surface roughness can reach Ra6.3 μm.

Key words: 3D printing; rapid mold; SLA; wax injection; impeller