In this year, the price of castings has been rising frequently.What factors will affect the price of investment casting?

In this year, the price of castings has been rising frequently. 

What factors will affect the price of investment casting?

Precision casting, also known as "lost wax casting" or "investment casting", has been widely used for hundreds of years, and it is well known that its components have excellent surface finish, dimensional accuracy and complex shape. This is particularly useful for making castings of complex shapes, where machining may not be possible or raw materials may be wasted for machining. For customers, cost is obviously one of the important factors in choosing investment casting suppliers. So what factors will affect the price of investment casting?

As we all know, more than 70% of the total cost of product development has been determined in the design stage, although the cost of investment casting in this stage is less than 7% of the total cost. Through simultaneous product and process design, more resources can be invested to detect and prevent potential manufacturing problems as soon as possible, which can significantly reduce the overall cost and lead time of investment casting. At the same time, in contact with most professional purchasing personnel, professional purchasing personnel hope to reduce the price of investment casting through the price fluctuation of raw materials. The price of investment casting is affected by the following aspects.

1. Cost of raw materials

The cost depends to some extent on the alloy steel. Among steel castings, stainless steel castings are very expensive. The material cost of stainless steel castings depends on the material grade. For the same material, the cost of investment casting may change at different times. Therefore, when the material cost is low, buyers will get cheap castings.

In recent days, iron and steel plants in East China have increased the purchase price of scrap steel by more than 300 yuan per ton. From the low point of this year（2021）, the price of scrap steel has increased by more than 50%, reaching the highest point in history. Raw material prices continue to rise, but also let steel prices soar.

2. Casting cost

The productivity of the investment casting system is the percentage of the actual weight of the casting product in the weight of the whole casting system. Casting cost per unit weight is inversely proportional to production. The lower the productivity, the higher the cost.

For a specific investment casting, the output is equal to the total weight of the investment casting on the same tree, expressed as a percentage of the weight of the whole tree. It is related to the grouping scheme of investment casting structure and tree. It can range from 30% to 60%, most of which are between 40% and 50%. The lower the casting output, the higher the cost.