Formlabs Clear Cast Resin, 5L

Formlabs Clear Cast Resin for metal casting in molds

Formlabs Clear Cast Resin for 3D printing of injection molds. Developed specifically for the manufacture of engineering elements by casting metals from melted models.

It is a high-precision material used to print casting patterns with an accuracy of up to 25 microns, designed for the production of parts with a wall thickness of more than 3 mm. The resin has extremely low thermal expansion, low ash content, and no traces of heavy metals.

Choose a 5-liter container of Formlabs Clear Cast Resin to increase the efficiency of 3D printing casting patterns on Formlabs Form 3 Series printers. Print large quantities of accurate, low-ash, low-impact investment casting patterns right in your workshop.

Clear Cast Resin is recommended for use with larger parts in combination with gridding software, allowing for geometries over 3 mm thick.

Resin for 3D printing of injection molds at a wholesale price

• Reduced cost. An economical 5-liter container of Clear Cast Resin that is available at wholesale prices and saves shelf space in your workshop.
• Affordable in-house template production. Clear Cast Resin allows you to directly produce casting patterns on Formlabs Form 3 series SLA 3D printers without having to outsource it. This reduces costs, shortens lead times, and improves iteration and production flexibility.
• Clean burn. Clear Cast resin provides a clean burn with low ash content and no trace metals, leaving nothing to contaminate the final cast part.
• Low thermal expansion. Best-in-class thermal expansion for reliable casting shells with minimal cracking.
• Precise and versatile. Create accurate models within 0.25 mm of the design. Compatible with any metal or shell system, enabling foundries to cast new designs in record time
• Built on experience. Formlabs manufactures industry-leading resins for third-party large SLA printers in its state-of-the-art Ohio facility and uses this experience to develop Clear Cast Resin for its own SLA printers.

Clear Cast Resin applications

Today, investment casting is used in many industries that require individual production of precision metal parts: engine parts, turbines, medical implants, surgical instruments, dental prostheses, jewelry, souvenirs and decorative elements, various complex components for industry, etc.

3D printing of burn-in models for investment casting

Investment casting (also known as lost-model casting or precision casting) is a high-precision method of producing metal parts that allows for the production of products with complex shapes and high precision. This process has a long history, but thanks to modern technology, it has reached a new level of development.

How does investment casting work?

The main idea behind investment casting is to 3D print an exact copy of a future part. The traditional way to produce such a copy was to create it from wax, which was a rather time-consuming method.

The 3D-printed copy of the part is then covered with a refractory material. After the refractory mixture has hardened, the wax is melted, forming a cavity of the exact shape of the part. Molten metal is poured into this cavity, filling the entire space and taking the shape of the wax model. After cooling and removal of the casting system, the finished product is obtained.

Burnable resins in the Formlabs library

Clear Cast Resin is one of the materials developed by Formlabs for the needs of lost foam casting.

Unlike Castable Wax Resin, which is designed for small filigree jewelry, and Castable Wax 40 Resin, which is designed for casting more massive jewelry, Clear Cast Resin occupies a niche in 3D printing molds for casting large engineering metal parts. Unlike other resins, Clear Cast Resin excels in printing large parts and in the process of burning a large cavity without cracking the ceramic coating.

Metal casting workflow with 3D printed patterns

3D printed molds (templates) can be used to directly replace molded wax patterns commonly used for investment casting, allowing for the creation of complex geometries and faster iterations without special tools. The process of creating a 3D printed pattern is usually as follows:

• Create shells, mesh, and add drainage holes to the part using a tool like Materialize Magics or Formware.
• Orient the supports and cut the model in PreForm.
• Print the template.
• Wash, refine, and remove the supports.
• Seal any drainage holes with wax or apply a small amount of Clear Cast resin to the hole.
• Attach the pattern to the casting tree and continue the casting process.

Mechanical and Burnout Properties

• Ultimate Tensile Strength - 65 MPa
• Tensile Modulus - 2.8 GPa
• Flexural Modulus - 2.2 GPa
• Thermal Expansion, -30-140 °C - 94.8 μm/m/°C
• Ash Content - <0.20%
• Antimony - <10 ppm
• Detected Transition Metals (>10 ppm) - Al, Cu
• High Concentration Transition Metals (>50 ppm) - None

Buy Clear Cast Resin for Form 3 in Poland

See the Data Sheets of the Formlabs Clear Cast Resin on "Download Data Sheets" tab