Adhesion tension force between mould and pattern wax in investment castings

The adhesion tension of commercial filled and unfilled waxes in contact with a representative ceramic shell system used in investment casting was determined by the Wilhelmy plate method. The average adhesion tension force off our filled waxes reduced at a rate of approximately 6.0 × 10−8 Nmm−1 °C−1 and the unfilled wax at a rate of 3.4 × 10−8 Nmm−1 °C−1. Adhesion tension measured by Wilhelmy plate method was compared to the surface tension of wax measured by the Du-Nuoy ring method. It is suggested that Du-Nuoy ring method is the simplest practical experiment to obtain the characteristics of wax-shell interaction for modelling applications.