Intelligent Transformation Empowers Investment Casting Upgrade

To address industry pain points of traditional manual shell-making in investment casting, including low efficiency, inconsistent product quality and high defect rates of large complex castings, Weifang Junlong Machinery has recently fully completed the technical upgrading of its fully automatic intelligent shell-making production line. Equipped with robotic automatic dipping-coating equipment and a constant temperature & humidity intelligent drying system, the company realizes digital control of core investment casting procedures and comprehensively boosts mass production capacity for high-end castings.Traditional manual shell-making is plagued by uneven coating thickness, uncontrollable drying cycles and easy cracking of large wax assemblies. Especially for thick-walled special-shaped castings used in petroleum and construction machinery, defects such as pores and shrinkage porosity frequently occur. This time, Junlong introduced automatic circulating shell-making equipment paired with an intelligent workshop environmental control system, which precisely regulates temperature, humidity and wind speed in the shell-making workshop. Data of dipping-coating, sanding and drying for every set of wax patterns are recorded throughout the whole process, enabling traceable process parameters and cutting casting reject rates from the source.Three remarkable core achievements have been delivered after the technical renovation:

1. Improved Production Efficiency: The daily output of a single shell-making line rises by 25%. Multiple batches and specifications of wax patterns can be produced simultaneously, shortening order delivery cycles.
2. Upgraded Quality Consistency: The surface finish and dimensional uniformity of castings are greatly optimized, and the first-pass yield rate of complex structural castings has reached 98.8%.
3. Optimized Labor Allocation: Repetitive high-intensity manual stations are reduced, human-induced operational errors are minimized, and production standardization is greatly enhanced.

According to the technical director, Junlong has also upgraded heat treatment and non-destructive testing equipment. The quenching and normalizing processes are optimized for high-strength alloy steel castings such as 42CrMo and 713C, stably meeting heavy-load and impact-resistant working conditions of construction and petroleum machinery. With pre-analysis via CAD/CAE simulation, potential casting defects can be predicted in advance, drastically shortening the verification cycle of new product mold development.As a large-scale local investment casting exporter based in Weifang, Junlong takes technological innovation as its core competitiveness. Three production systems are deployed in parallel: silica sol medium-temperature wax investment casting, water glass composite process and resin sand casting, covering production demands ranging from small precision parts to medium & large heavy-duty castings. In the next step, the enterprise will continuously promote digital workshop transformation and build a production data management system, leveraging intelligent manufacturing to support the global business expansion of high-end mechanical component supply.