Polycast is a worldwide specialist in the production of Precision Investment Castings by the lost wax method. The company’s Airmelt Investment Casting Technology is especially suitable for many items produced in ferrous and non-ferrous alloys. Polycast produces cast, machined, heat-treated, assembled and fully-finished parts for industries including the medical, marine, automotive, aircraft and general engineering industries. In an effort to bring developed samples to market faster and more cost effectively, Polycast technical staff have developed casting techniques to use with the many different stereolithography pattern materials, from ABS standard plastic, thermoplastic build material and SLA quickcast build style. Polycast works with ARRK Product Development Group in Gloucester, Ricardo Consultant Engineers in Shoreham and Laser-line of Banbury to provide a flexible approach to customers needs by producing sound parts within 7–10 days from receipt of the emailed electronic files.

A project was recently undertaken for Sunseeker International Yachts, Dorset, who came to Polycast with a special concept for a unique ‘cleat’ design for the company’s new Predator series of performance motor yachts. This design was a concept in the mind of Sunseeker’s Design Director John Braithwaite and neither drawings nor electronic files existed. This was a challenge for the Polycast team, and after careful consideration Polycast introduced Ian Brennan to Sunseeker, a local sculptor and wood carver. During the next meeting John Braithwaite and Geoff Kemp, Sunseeker’s Operations Manager, outlined their thoughts regarding the new cleat design to Ian, who came up with a wooden cleat, which, following some minor modifications was approved by the Sunseeker team. The pressure was now on to get the new design into metal for further approval by Sunseeker and developed for serial production to be scheduled in line with the decks of the new Sunseeker Motor Yacht about to be laid down.

Polycast turned to TEBIS, an industry leader in CAD-CAM, who took the wooden cleat and using their CAD Module, scanned the cleats surfaces to create the electronic dimensional data. The new cleat now had a skeleton and by emailing the file directly into the ‘RICARDO’ ThermoPlastic build material machine, the final touches were made. The first patterns were produced within 24 hours, collected by Polycast from RICARDO and loaded into the Polycast development programme.

As the Polycast engineers had seen the electronic files in STL format, the orientation of the casting technique had already been established. The assemblies were immediately progressed through to shelling, drying, de-waxing, casting, post cast operations and polishing in time for the parts to meet with Sunseeker International’s approval. Polycast’s philosophy of working closely with the customer and managing a supply chain of specialised suppliers, enabled the logistics of the challenge to be completed inside two weeks.