Vacuum Casting is a traditional process widely used throughout the rapid prototyping industry to create Polyurethane (PU) parts that simulate production plastics such as ABS, Nylon, and Rubber. Unlike gravity fed casting, this tooling route is processed entirely under vacuum, eliminating air entrapment and enabling highly detailed reproductions from the master model.

Vacuum Casting is a fast and relatively low cost technique for smaller prototypes in PU materials, for all types of components from the automotive, aeronautical, to medical and domestic fields.

Most tools made via this route are capable of producing 15 to 25+ parts, dependant on the complexity of the part geometry. Also small undercuts can be tolerated due to the flexibility of the silicone mould. Overall this process proves to be a very economical way of producing near production quality parts for photography, exhibitions, marketing, pre-production builds or even low volume production.

Frank R Hay & Sons uses a wide range of Vacuum Casting Resins designed to emulate most thermoplastics in look, feel, and physical properties such as high heat resistance, flame retardant and UV stability.

Vacuum Cast components are very close to production standard parts in both look and feel, but it must be noted that these materials do not in most cases have the exact mechanical characteristics of the final production intent material. These are pure development prototypes. However, vacuum castings are an excellent way of having physical prototype parts for aesthetic and functional evaluation without going to the time and expense of an injection mould tool.

15 to 25 parts per single impression tool. Accurate and consistent parts. Wide range of PU (Polyurathane) resins to emulate production intent materials. Both thermoplastic and thermoplastic elastomers. Wide range of colours available, as well as water clear. Other features that can be accommodated include heat resistant, fire retardant and live hinge. Low cost investment for tooling of larger runs (1-300 parts). Multi-cavity tooling for cost effective batch production. Tools can be designed and manufactured with complex inserts, coring and overmoulding. Intricate components can be produced with a wall thickness as low as 0.4mm. Ideal for multiple replication, where conventional injection mould tooling would simply be too expensive.

8-10 Working days from approval of a master model. High quality, coloured, textured or polished parts. Tools can produce textured / grained parts. Parts can be over moulded for soft feel applications. Accuracy ± 0.2mm with a repeatability of ± 0.1mm.