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Preparation and analysis of a hybrid ceramic shell for investment casting

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Abstract

In the current research work, an attempt has been made to increase the investment casting (IC) ceramic shell’s permeability by adding different pore-formers in its first and backup layers to get an overall permeable ceramic shell. The chosen ingredients for the principal and backup layers of the ceramic shell are fine polyethylene wax (PW) powder and betel nut (BN) fibres. With an aim to increase both permeability and strength of the shells simultaneously, BN fibres were chosen as additive for the secondary slurries. It was found that this hybrid mixture of PW powder and BN fibres as alterants enhanced the shell properties, namely, green strength by 33%, fired strength by 3%, porosity by 86% and permeability by 27% as regards to the traditional IC shell. The inner surface texture of the prepared ceramic shells was found to be within the acceptable range.

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The corresponding author has conducted the experimentation and the second author has done all editing of text and figures, and critically revised the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Sarojrani Pattnaik.

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Pattnaik, S., Sutar, M.K. Preparation and analysis of a hybrid ceramic shell for investment casting. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 122, 2513–2527 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-10054-0

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