ProCaster printed lattice filters for investment casting, atomizing and other molten metal processes.
A filter whose geometry comes from a design file,
not from a piece of foam.
A 3D printed ceramic filter cleans molten metal by forcing it through a printed lattice of ceramic struts with no straight line of sight, so oxides and other inclusions are caught on the strut surfaces while the metal flow is slowed and evened out before it fills the mold. Because every filter is printed from the same design, pore size and flow resistance stay the same from part to part. ProCaster 3D printed filters are made in several ceramic compositions for ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
Capture: molten metal has to change direction at every strut. Inclusions that follow the flow touch the ceramic surface and stay there, and with no straight path through the filter, nothing passes on a direct line.
Flow: the lattice spreads the stream over the whole filter area and takes energy out of it. Less turbulence at the gate means less new oxide formed during filling and a more even fill.
Strength: a filter that sheds its own fragments adds the inclusions it is meant to remove. ProCaster filters are built to resist chipping, flaking and crumbling under the first impact of the metal.
Filtration only becomes a process you can control when every filter in the box has the same pores, the same struts and the same flow resistance.
Both trap inclusions. The difference is how well you can predict what the next one does.
Investment casting: in the pour cup or gating of superalloy and steel molds, where inclusions and turbulent filling are the main causes of rejected castings.
Atomizing: between melt and nozzle, where a clean, steady stream decides powder quality. Ceramic atomizing nozzles are made for the same systems.
Beyond metal: the open, high temperature lattice also works as a heat distributor or as a sintering fixture.
Filters remove what reaches them. Starting each heat in a clean crucible removes inclusions at the source, which is the idea behind single use one-shot crucibles.
No. ProCaster filters are made in several ceramic compositions for ferrous and non-ferrous applications.
Yes. Because the filter is printed, its outside shape, thickness and lattice can be designed for the pour cup or gate it sits in.
A foam filter copies the random structure of a polymer foam. A printed filter has a designed lattice that repeats from part to part, with no straight flow path.
Tell us the alloy, the pour weight and where the filter sits in your gating. A Blasch engineer proposes a filter geometry and composition.
