Rapid Prototyping

One of the company's major areas of development is in rapid prototyping. The Lestercast team has considerable expertise in this relatively new technology and is able to provide its customers with an efficient method of acquiring high quality cast parts quickly.

In the context of casting production, the design and development stages for a new part can be very costly in terms of time and money but the use of rapid processing technologies simplifies the process and reduces lead times considerably. The principal benefit is the speed at which the solid model is generated and its ability to produce complex 3-dimensional shapes accurately from CAD drawings. Wax models can be produced in hours and turned into investment castings within a week, compared with the overall lead time of five to six weeks using conventional methods. In many cases, the use of rapid processing technologies as part of the investment casting process provides the capability to achieve complex metal shapes that are impossible to make through other methods.

Lestercast's success in applying this technology has been recognised nationally, when it achieved the MWP Best Subcontractor Award for Rapid Prototyping Development in 2004.