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Lost-wax casting – also called investment casting, precision casting, or cire perdue (French: [siʁ pɛʁdy]; borrowed from French) [1] – is the process by which a duplicate sculpture (often a metal, such as silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is cast from an original sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method.
The fragile wax patterns must withstand forces encountered during the mould making. Much of the wax used in investment casting can be reclaimed and reused. [2] Lost-foam casting is a modern form of investment casting that eliminates certain steps in the process.
Solid casting does not use a clay core but instead a solid piece of wax to create the mould; hollow casting is the more traditional method and uses the clay core. [1] The first task in the lost wax hollow casting process consists of developing a clay core which is roughly the shape of the final cast image.
Lost-foam casting is a type of evaporative-pattern casting process that is similar to investment casting except foam is used for the pattern instead of wax. This process takes advantage of the low boiling point of foam to simplify the investment casting process by removing the need to melt the wax out of the mold.
The lost-wax casting technique Robinson developed is a modified version of the bronze casting technique. It involves creating a plaster mould which is filled with molten wax. The mould is then removed (and can be reused) and the wax is encased in a heat-resistant covering and placed in the kiln.
The lost wax process originated in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest known record of lost-wax casting is a clay tablet written in cuneiform in the ancient city of Sparta, Babylon, which specifically records how much wax is needed to cast a key. [6] The earliest-known castings in the global archaeological record were made in open stone molds. [7]
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