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Investment Casting Autoclave Systems
ASC designs and manufactures dewaxing autoclaves used in the investment casting industry.
The Process
In the investment casting process, casting wax is injected into a metal die in order to create a solidified wax positive of the part to be cast. This wax positive is called a "pattern". The wax pattern is then dipped in a ceramic slurry to form an external ceramic shell negative.
Once the ceramic shell is created, a dewaxing autoclave is used to melt and remove the internal casting wax from ceramic shells.
The ceramic shell is then fired and ultimately used as the mold cavity for the metal casting.
Controlled venting
ASC's investment autoclave systems come equipped with proportional vent valve systems to provide programmable control of the venting process. This is critical in order to reduce cracking of the shells.
Click here for addition dewaxing/investment casting Econclave systems
Investment cast parts
Casting shells
Casting into shells
Automotive Composites
Many advancements in the automotive industry have come from the race tracks of the world. For some time now, composites have played a major role in improving the performance of automotive racing, as blown fuel dragsters, NASCAR, and Formula One have each experienced tremendous gains. With demand for higher performance and energy efficiency, the commercial automotive sector has joined the race by integrating the advanced carbon fiber composites found in racing into the cars we see and admire on the road today.
ASC Process Systems is no stranger to the automotive composites movement. Automobiles like the Chevy Corvette and the Dodge Viper SRT have taken the lead in high-performance consumer automobiles by utilizing ASC’s Econoclave® to cure their composite components. Like Chevy and Dodge, many high performance and luxury automotive manufacturers have been able to achieve higher performance and better fuel economy through more complex designs with the use of carbon fiber composites.
Choosing the right bonding equipment for your project
As the leading manufacturer of composite curing autoclaves and ovens, no matter the size or complexity of your composite parts, our sales team can help you find the right composite bonding equipment for your requirements.
Oven Curing
With the growing popularity of carbon fiber composite car parts, automotive manufacturers and aftermarket companies have come a long way in curing composites with the use of ovens and room temperature vacuum-bagged composite cures. For many non-structural parts, the use of a composite curing oven a great solution. An ASC built curing oven has many of the same features found in an autoclave, including the CPC control system, part thermocouples to control and monitor your part during a cure cycle, part vacuum line systems to enable vacuum bagging of parts, and much more.
Autoclave Curing
When the finer detail, tighter tolerance, lighter weight, increased strength, and lower porosity matter, an autoclave is a next step in composites processing. With the introduction of pressure that is required to achieve advanced aerospace-grade composites, the autoclave is able to take the composites' oven cure one step further. Like the ASC composites curing oven, the Econoclave® comes standard with CPC® controls, part thermocouples, part vacuum lines, and also includes a feature not commonly found in curing ovens, the ability to apply cooling to the part, thus increasing production time and allowing for the safe handling of your part post-cure.
Autoclaves for Ballistic Armor
Ballistic armor is fabricated from a mix of composite materials, steel, silica, and ceramics. In order to increase the quality of the final product, most armor must be bonded and cured in composite curing autoclaves.
ASC's ballistic-capable Econoclave is used to manufacture the composite structures that are ultimately assembled into the final delivered armor.
Interior of Ballistic Glass Laminating Econoclave
Econoclave for Ballistics manufacturing
As the use of IEDs (improvised explosive device) increased during the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US and International military units saw the immediate need to improve both the body armor given to each soldier and the armor assembled into personnel vehicles. The goal was to increase survivability, and the result was a focused plan to develop and manufacture more and better armor
ASC's autoclaves and control systems have become instrumental in the production of ballistic armor. Our high-pressure composite curing autoclave system, known worldwide as the Econoclave, is ballistic-capable, rated for high-pressure, and is used by the world's largest armor producers.
AAC Concrete Autoclave Systems
Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) is a highly thermally insulated concrete-based material used for both internal and external construction. AAC has excellent thermal insulating qualities and is also easily installed. Another benefit is that it can be routed, sanded, and cut to size on-site using standard carbon steel tools.
Autoclaves are used to cure AAC using live steam. These autoclaves are usually very long in order to accommodate rail-car loading techniques. ASC designs and manufactures AAC autoclaves for many of the leading AAC producers.
Aerated Concrete ready to ship.
Econoclave AAC Autoclaves being installed in the US concrete factory.
Exterior shot of four AAC autoclaves (195 ft. / 59m long)
Nuclear Sampling & Transfer Autoclave Systems
The nuclear fuel industry uses autoclaves to prevent the accidental emission of gaseous UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) during feeding, delivery, and sampling operations.
These specialized autoclaves are designed to accept 30B, 30C, 48X, and 48G storage cylinders and are used to finely control the heating and cooling in order to melt, vaporize, transfer, and re-solidify the enriched UF6 product.
Sampling autoclaves are used to fill sampling bottles with small amounts of UF6 in order to test the enrichment of the product. These autoclaves typically have an integral tilting capability in order to facilitate the sampling.
Transfer autoclaves are used to sublimate the solid UF6 into gaseous UF6 for transfer to the centrifuge cascades.
ASC is the only company in the U.S. qualified to build UF6 sampling and transfer autoclaves and have received multiple orders for Nuclear autoclaves in the past 5 years. These autoclaves have to meet the stringent NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) requirements. We are ASME NQA-1 qualified and our quality system has been certified by multiple nuclear fuel producers. See http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/ur-enrichment.html for more information regarding uranium enrichment.
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