In this guide 6 sections
Look for wax injection, tree assembly, shell building, dewax, burnout, pour and cut-off as separate tracked stages. Each casting should trace back to its tree, wax lot and heat. Insist on a demonstration with your own part, not a generic one.
Ask how the process is modelled
Investment casting has more stages than most foundry work. Wax is injected, patterns are assembled onto a tree, the tree is dipped in slurry and stucco, then dewaxed, fired, poured and cut off.
Ask whether each stage is its own step in the software, with its own quantities, dates and rejects. Stucco coats, slurry viscosity checks and drying time deserve fields of their own. A single status field marked in progress is not enough.
Then ask about the unit that moves. A tree holds many castings, but after cut-off every casting travels alone. The system must handle both. Many packages track the tree and forget the casting that comes out of it.
- Is wax injection tracked by die and by lot?
- Can one tree hold several part numbers?
- Are shell coats counted per tree?
- Is dewax a separate step with its own rejects?
- Does it record burnout and preheat?
Ask how traceability works by tree
Customers in aerospace, valves and pumps ask for heat numbers on certificates. Have the vendor pick one casting and trace it back to the heat, the tree, the wax lot and the slurry batch.
Find out what happens at cut-off. Does each casting get its own identity, or is the link to the tree lost? A heat number marked on the tree stem disappears when the stem is cut.
Ask for a sample certificate of conformance, and check it against the heat chemistry on screen. Mismatches here are what customers reject at incoming inspection. It should pull chemistry, heat treatment and inspection results without anyone retyping them. Retyping a chemistry result is how a wrong heat number reaches a customer.
Ask how defects and yield are captured
Wax defects, shell cracks, inclusions, misruns and shrinkage appear at different stages. Ask whether rejects are logged with a stage and a cause code, or only at final inspection. Late logging hides whether wax, shell or pour created the fault.
Ask about rework too. Weld repair, grinding and a second heat treatment each add cost, and they are often invisible in a simple pass or fail count.
A good answer shows yield per tree and per heat on screen. A weak answer is a promise of a custom report later. Take it as a no.
- Rejects by stage and cause code
- Weld repair and rework steps
- Yield per tree and per heat
- Scrap by part number
- Shell room conditions where you track them
Ask about data, equipment and support
Find out whether the software can take spectrometer output, CMM reports and X-ray results as files against the right heat or lot. Ask which formats it reads.
Find out who owns the data, how you export it and what happens if you stop paying. Ask whether the shop floor screens work on a tablet with a poor connection.
Ask who fixes a fault on a night pour. Support hours that stop at six in the evening do not suit a foundry that taps at midnight. Ask also about moving your part masters, wax die list and customer routes. Migration is where good products meet bad data. Ask for a trial import of ten part numbers before you commit.
- Import of spectrometer and CMM files
- Export of all records in open formats
- Tablet use on the shop floor
- Migration of parts and routes
- Training and support hours
Run a demo on your own part and score it
Send every vendor the same drawing, the same route and the same heat. Ask them to enter the heat and trace one casting from certificate back to wax lot while you watch.
Score each answer on a simple scale. Mark what was shown against what was only described. Slide decks do not count. Keep the notes from each session for the final comparison.
This week, write up one part and its route as a one-page brief, then send it to every vendor on your shortlist. The replies will sort the vendors. Those who ask good questions about your route tend to deliver better systems.
Vendor question sheet
One page ruled by question, grouped under process, traceability, defects, data and support. Columns hold the question, the vendor’s answer, a box for shown in demo or only described, and a score of 1 to 5. A summary row at the foot totals each vendor.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should investment casting software track wax separately?
Yes. Wax injection has its own dies, lots and rejects, and wax defects show up later as shell or casting faults. Tracking them apart lets you find the origin.
How is traceability different from a standard foundry?
A tree carries many castings from one heat, and the stem is cut away. The system must give each casting an identity at cut-off so the heat and lot link survives.
Can general ERP software do this?
Some can with heavy customisation. Ask for a demonstration on a tree with several parts, not a presentation of features, and check how cut-off is handled. Also test how heat numbers carry through weld repair and heat treatment.
How long should a demonstration take?
Allow half a day with your own part and route. Shorter demos stay on standard screens, and standard screens rarely match the process. Hold the session at your plant if you can, with the dewax and shell room people present.