Comparison of investment casting prepared for bio-medical application

The purpose of the present study is to compare investment castings prepared with conventional wax based patterns and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) based patterns for bio-medical implant (hip joint). Starting from the identification of component, patterns with three different types of pattern materials (namely: wax, ABS and ABS+wax) were prepared under different experimental conditions. Dimensional measurements were made on the final castings prepared. The results of study highlights that casting with ABS based pattern gives better dimensional accuracy (under given experimental conditions) and component hardness was also acceptable as per application requirement.Final components prepared are acceptable as per ISO standard UNI EN 20286-I (1995). Castings prepared at proposed parametric settings have been studied for functional validation of the parts. Also the study suggested that at proposed parametric settings the process was found to be under statistical control.