Patent ID: 6446697
Filing Date: 2002-09-10
Classification: B23P,G05B,Y02P

Abstract:
A method of making a casting having free-form, undercut or hidden interior surfaces, comprising:(a) designing a three-dimensional computer graphic model of said casting; (b) computer sectioning the graphic model into graphic members which are at least one of blocks and slabs having sides normal to the sectioning interval; (c) carving a physically solid member for each of the graphic members, the solid members being (i) constituted of an easily meltable, dissolvable or evaporative solid material, (ii) proportional to and enveloping its corresponding graphic member, and said carving being carried out by accessing and carving into and through two or more of said sides of each solid member that possesses at least portions of said interior surfaces and thereby essentially duplicate the corresponding graphic member; (d) securing the carved solid members together with matching interior surfaces to replicate the graphic model and form a unitary investment pattern; (e) forming a mold around said pattern, and (f) casting metal within said mold while removing the pattern from such mold either by evaporation during pouring of the molten metal thereinto or by melting or dissolution prior thereto.