Investment Casting stands ready to lead the Foundry world. New material technologies and computerised design techniques, set the pressures for Advanced Foundry Technologies to be applied throughout the investment casting process...from wax pattern through to finished casting.

New technologies have been developed to provide the highest level of control intelligence to all of the equipment used within the investment casting process, whether it is for Commerical, Medical or Aerospace castings.

Utilising microcomputer technology, originally developed for NASA application, new and powerful control systems have now been designed and engineered to integrate high levels of intelligence and SCADA to every facet of the Advanced Foundry.

The flexibility, consistency, and output performance, previously available from robotic systems, is now available to be applied to all other machines within the investment casting process...and the benefits are there for improved quality, productivity, reduced lead times, and increased profitability.

The paper will provide technical details of how these technologies have been developed in the form of IC-Net and how these technologies are being successfully applied in the most Advanced Foundries in USA, Europe, and Asia.