Vacuum Casting Services

Vacuum casting is a fast and cost-effective replication technology that can be used to produce high-quality plastic parts comparable to injection molded parts. It is particularly suitable for fit and function testing, marketing purposes or low-volume end-use parts.

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Vacuum Casting Turnkey Solutions

We offer a complete turnkey solution for creating master models and casting copies based on your CAD designs. Not only do we make high-quality molds, we also provide a full range of finishing services, including painting, sanding, pad printing, and more. We will help you create parts for showroom quality display models, engineering test samples, crowdfunding campaigns, and more.

Our Capabilities

Vacuum casting is a process of creating a high-fidelity replica of a master pattern using polyurethane resin, using a 3D printed master pattern to create a precision silicone mold. Cast parts can ensure bubble-free, detailed finished quality comparable to injection molded parts, but faster and more cost-effective. Ideal for prototyping, small to medium-volume production, and high-quality end-use parts.
We enhance polyurethane vacuum casting by ensuring a minimum dimensional shrinkage of +0.15% for parts under 30 inches, allowing tight tolerances on complex designs to be maintained. Our services are highly customizable to meet the needs for transparent, color-matched, or special finished parts such as those requiring EMI shielding. We also integrate a variety of inserts into the casting process for enhanced functionality.
As a result, our vacuum casting services become a reliable alternative to injection molding, bridging the gap between prototype development and full production, with low costs and long lead times. This provides a cost-effective, quality-assured solution for specific customer needs.

Manufacturing tolerance

The vacuum casting process’s tolerance range is +/-0.01 mm, and the tolerance range for each process type may be different. Likewise, injection molding tolerances are +/.005″ for the first inch and +/-.002″ for each inch after that. The tolerance value shows a standard deviation in vacuum casting parts. Tolerance ranges are available concerning the size of the designed machine part, surface finish, internal and external grow lines and quality, shrinkage rate due to thermal expansion, and distance dimensions. Metal inserts maintain tight tolerances in bores and crucial regions.

Materials for Vacuum Casting

Materials used in vacuum casting include thermoplastics, rubbers and resins, all of which can simulate specific properties and characteristics including: surface texture, clarity, stiffness, strength, hardness, temperature resistance, color.

Polypropylene (PP) like (80D)
Polycarbonate (PC) like (75D)
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) like (83D)
PE-like (65D)
Santoprene-like
Thermoplastic Polyolefins (TPO or TPE-O) like
Talc-Filled Polypropylene like
Glass-Filled Nylon like

Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) like
Fire-Retardant (FR) PU like (78D, 80D, 85D)
High Impact (85D, 88D, 80D – 90D)
Polyamide (PA) like (80D)
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) + High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) like (70D)
Elastomer like (60A, 65A, 70A, 90A, 95A)
Polyurethane (PUR or PU) like (25A, 30A 40A, 50A, 60A, 70A, 80A, 84D, 85A, 90A)

Vacuum Casting Color Options

Our vacuum casting services offer a wide range of color options to meet your exact design specifications and branding requirements. Customize your vacuum cast parts with vibrant, consistent colors for enhanced aesthetics and product recognition.

Standard Black
Pure White
Transparent
Metallic Shades
Neon Colors
Custom Colors

Surface Finish Options

Surface finish can be tailored to meet the product’s hardness, chemical resistance, and appearance requirements. This depends on the material properties and the part’s application. We offer the following finishing options:

Full Glossy: SPI Standard: A1, A2, A3
Semi-Glossy: SPI Standard: B1, B1, B3
Matte Finish: SPI Standard: C1, C2, C3
Custom Texture: SPI Standard: D1, D1, D3

Applications

We produce high quality custom cast polyurethane parts using custom formulated polyurethane processes and can also produce prototypes based on your drawings or sketches. This is relatively inexpensive and any design changes become simple and economical. Some industrial applications for vacuum casting include:

Engineering models
Marketing test samples
Pre-production runs
Test prototypes
Rapid prototypes
Bridge to production

Production of display parts
User evaluation
Consumer testing
Low-volume manufacturing
Concept models
Sales samples

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What is Vacuum Casting?

Vacuum casting, also known as polyurethane casting or urethane casting, is an elastomeric casting process that uses a vacuum to draw liquid material into a mold, creating plastic and rubber parts. As an extremely adaptable manufacturing process, vacuum casting is capable of producing complex parts with intricate details. The process begins by placing a two-piece silicone mold into a vacuum chamber. The liquid polyurethane resin is mixed and degassed before filling the mold. Once the liquid is poured into the mold, the pressure vessel is immediately filled with compressed air up to 80 psi. This vacuum-pressurization combination allows the most complex molds to be completely filled with virtually no bubbles. By heating the process, we can eliminate the need for post-curing, which speeds up the process of final prototyping. Once set, the mold is removed from the vacuum

Advantages Of Vacuum Casting

Low cost for molds
Molds can be made in a few days
Many types of polyurethane resins are available for casting, including overmolding
Cast copies are highly accurate with excellent surface texture
Molds are durable for 20 or more copies
Perfect for engineering models, samples, rapid prototypes, bridge to production

When to Use Vacuum Casting?

Choose vacuum casting when you need to produce quality plastic parts in small quantities (10 to 20 pieces) while avoiding the long lead time and financial investment of manufacturing plastic injection molds.
Also, when parts are used for prototypes and display models, crowdfunding and trade show campaigns, testing the fit and function of new designs, and as a bridge to larger production volumes, vacuum casting can save significant time and money. Of course, vacuum casting can also be used for end-use parts in certain applications, as castable casting resins can effectively mimic the properties of ABS, nylon, PP, acrylic, and soft TPE rubbers.

Industries We Serve

Vacuum casting has a wide range of applications in various industrial fields. We produce tens of thousands of high-quality prototypes through vacuum casting for customers around the world every year. The following are the industries we serve.