Liqcreate Wax Castable 3D-printing resin for Jewelry applications

Liqcreate Wax Castable is a blue wax-based photopolymer with reliable processability and accuracy on LCD/MSLA, DLP and laser based 3D-printers. 3D-printed parts from this material captures intricate features and show crisp details. This wax-based material offers smooth surfaces with clean burnout for a reliable casting process. Create custom made elegant organic geometries with positive and negative engravings according to your preferences. Liqcreate Wax Castable creates perfect casting patterns for jewelry, dental and industrial parts.

Key benefits

• – High precision
• – Wax-based
• – Clean & ash free burnout
• – Excellent casting of engravings

3D-printer compatibility

• – Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K
• – Anycubic Photon
• – Elegoo Mars
• – And many more 385 – 405nm DLP, LCD and SLA 3D-printers

 

                         

Wax-Based                 Clean and ash-free burn-out                    High accuracy

 

Ash free, clean burn-out wax castable resin perfect for jewelry engravings

One of the key benefits of using Liqcreate Wax Castable resin is the precise and flawless engravings in rings, as displayed in the rings below.

Processing Wax Castable resin

Due to the significant amount of wax, Liqcreate Wax Castable will solidify around 17 – 18˚C. It is not advised to use this product in environments with temperatures below 18˚C. storage or transport of Liqcreate Wax Castable below 18˚C is possible. Before processing, it is necessary to heat-up the product to its liquid phase. This can be done by leaving the product for 5 hours at room temperature or by placing the packaging in a warm environment (without direct light, in the original packaging) up to 50˚C for 20 minutes.

 

3D-printing with Liqcreate Wax Castable resin

It is important that the 3D-printed parts are flawless to get the best casting results. Layer thickness of below 0,05mm is strongly advised along with a well calibrated 3D-printer. Find the parameters of your printer here, or send an e-mail to info@liqcreate.com for more information about printer settings and compatible 3D-printers.

 

Post-processing Liqcreate Wax Castable resin.

After printing, take the parts off the platform and wash them. Wash them in alcohol or IPA (not below 18°C / 64°F) in two cycles of three minutes, preferably under agitation or ultrasonic. The second wash should be done in fresh solvent to get a clean and crisp surface. After the second wash, let the part sit on your desk for 10 minutes and inspect your part. The part should be clean, with a matte finish and free from any resin or contamination. If that is the case, then continue to post-curing. Otherwise perform the second washing cycle in fresh solvent again.

Parts are ready for post-curing after 10-15 minutes resting time after washing. Post-cure them for at least 15 minutes. This way the surface is fully cured and ready for casting. If no Anti-aliasing or blurring settings are used, in perfectly printed and washed parts should the layers should be clearly visible. An example of a part that is printed and washed correctly can be found in the image below. It should be noted that the investment material, and thus also the casted metal parts will have these visible likes as well. If that is not wanted, grinding before casting, or using Anti-aliasing or Blur settings can help reduce the layer effect.

 

Investment material for Wax Castable resin

Choosing the right investment material when using 3D-printed wax resin patterns is very important. Resin and also Wax-based resins have a higher thermal expansion compared to regular wax. The investment material should be strong enough to survive this expansion and not crack. For jewelry applications, our beta-partners have had great success with Prestige Unicast investment material. Our dental partners at 3D-Dental Store are using both N&V and Ambervest investment materials with success for casting dental applications.

 

Burn-out schedule for Liqcreate Wax Castable resin

We followed the instruction of the investment material (Prestige Unicast). The following burn-out schedule is used:

Parts have a matt finish after casting and polishing is necessary to get high-gloss metals. As a reference we shared a picture below of a printed part, freshly casted part and on the right side a (partly) polished part.

 

Troubleshooting

In this section we cover the most questions on some known issues that can occur. If you are still running into issues, reach out to us at info@liqcreate.com for assistance. As the printing, post-processing, preparation and casting process is quite extensive, a small issue somewhere in the process can cause an unwanted end-result. Please provide us with additional information when reaching out for assistance:

1. Which printer brand and type was used?
2. Which resin used?
3. Screen-copy of your printing parameters
4. Was the printed part successful?
5. Picture of the printed part
6. What kind of post-processing (washing & cleaning) did you use?
7. Which investment material did you use and what was the flask size?
8. Which burn-out cycle did you use?
9. What was the temperature of the flask and the temperature of the metal during pouring?
10. What kind of defects were visible in the metal part and which type of metal did you use?

Solve printing issues with Liqcreate Wax Castable resin.

The investment material will take over every detail of the printed part. Meaning that the quality of the 3D-printed wax-like model needs to be as perfect as possibly. Printing with Wax Castable resin can be slightly more difficult compared to other resins, due to the Wax present in the resin. At temperatures below 18 degrees Celsius / 65 degrees Fahrenheit, the resin will solidify. It is important that the resin is completely liquid during printing. Also the room temperature were you are using the Wax Castable resin should be at least at 20°C. Usually the resin wont solidify during printing, however, when printing in a cold room, the droplets left on the platform can solidify. This will make the washing process more difficult. It is important that the washing solvents are also at least 20°C to prevent solidification during washing.

A lot of 3D-printers have already been optimized with Liqcreate Wax Castable resin. Find out if your printer is listed here. Send an e-mail to info@liqcreate.com if your printer is not listed. Most of the settings have been optimized on filigree designs, these are thin designs which often require a longer exposure time. If you have more bulky designs, the exposure time can be lower for your parts.

Wax Castable  resin does not stick to the build plate

We have noticed that the wax inside the resin gives a low adhesion to anodized alumina platforms, like the Elegoo Mars series. To get the parts to stick to the platform better, it is advised to make some support changes. The raft of the supports has a big area and often pulls the part from the platform. To change the raft settings, printing will be much easier. Changing the raft height and raft thickness to 0,1mm will fix most of these issues.

Solution if engravings are not sharp after printing

The basics is of course the print parameters. If your part is over-cured or under-cured, then the engravings and other details won’t be sharp. If your print parameters are correct, then it might be the print orientation. Especially for rings with engravings, the orientation of your part is very important. For rings with engraging it is advised to place the rings under a 20 degree angle instead of printing vertical. The reason is that the chance of overcuring your engravings is far lower in this position. For best orientation see the image below. If you still have questions if your orientation or settings are good, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@liqcreate.com

What to do when the resin is thick or even solid?

Due to the wax presend in our product, Liqcreate Wax Castable will solidify around 17 – 18˚C / ~64˚F. It is not advised to use this product in environments with temperatures below 18˚C / 64˚F. storage or transport of Liqcreate Wax Castable below 18˚C / 64˚F is possible. Before processing, it is necessary to heat-up the product to its liquid phase. This can be done by leaving the product for 5 hours at room temperature or by placing the packaging in a warm environment (without direct light, in the original packaging) up to 50˚C for 20 minutes. For instance a closed bottle on a radiator or hot bucket of water for 20 minutes will do the trick.

 

Sharp lines and pixels visible in cast (& in printed part)

The investment material will take over every detail of the printed part. If the printed model has lines, these will be visible in the casted part as well. There are a few methods to solve this. first one is to set anti-aliasing and blurr in the printing software. For chitubox this is available in the advanced settings. With the Mars 3 we were able to get most of the pixel lines out by setting the AA to Grey level 0 and the Blurr to level 2, see image below. Alternaively, you can grind/polish them out or add a small layer of wax on top to blurr it. but the fastest method is by setting it in the software. Note that all machines are slightly different and might need different settings. Also not all lines are completely gone, but most of them are definitely less pronounced and easier to process further.

 

Casting issues

Bad casting surface

Bad casting surface (like the skin of an orange) can be caused by:

• 1) Too high temperature of the flask during casting
• 2) Too high temperature of the alloy during casting
• 3) surface of the casted part was not properly cured or cleaned.
• 4) Flask over-heat during burn-out (do not increase over 750°C / 1382°C).

 

Gas porosity in part

Gas porosity can be caused by:

• 1) Low quality alloy (or too much recycled material)
• 2) Flask temperature too high
• 3) Metal temperature too high
• 4) Inspect thermocouples in oven to make sure that the temperature is right.

 

Cracking of investment material

Cracking of the investment material can be caused by:

• 1) Use of not suitable investment material (Wax Castable requires a stronger investment material that can hold the higher thermal expansion of the material during burn-out)
• 2) Incorrect preparation. That could be incorrect powder to water ratio, too long mixing time or use of regular tap water instead of distilled water.
• 3) Leave at least 1 cm gap between the printed resin parts and the flask limits. Smaller gaps can be the cause of cracks in the investment material.

 

Flashing of metal cast

Flashing be caused by:

• 1) Incorrect powder/water ratio of the investment material.
• 2) Work time of investment too long as the slurry start to set while still under vacuum.
• 3) Casting the material with too much force or moving the flask too early.
• 4) Flask over-heated during burn-out.

 

 

Engravings not clear

Engravings that are filled or not clear can be caused by:

• 1) Engravings not sharp in printed part
• 2) depth of the engraving incorrect as engravings should never be deeper compared the width.
• 3) Deeper engravings need a harder investment material, that can be done by increasing the rest time of the flask after pouring the investment material.

 

Bubbles present

bubbles can be caused by:

• 1) Incorrect powder-water ratio in the investment material (investment material too thick).
• 2) Faulty vacuum process.

 

Incomplete casted part

Incomplete casted parts can be caused by:

• 1) Too low alloy or flask temperature during pouring.
• 2) Inadequate spruing.
• 2) depth of the engraving incorrect as engravings should never be deeper compared the width.
• 3) Deeper engravings need a harder investment material, that can be done by increasing the rest time of the flask after pouring the investment material.

 

Water markings on casted part

Water markings can be caused by:

• 1) Incorrect powder-water ratio in the investment material (too much water).
• 2) Investment not set – wait longer after pouring.

 

We wish you a great journey with our Wax based Castable resin. If you have printed or casted a great part and want to be featured in our social media, or have any questions about the product or processing, send us an e-mail to info@liqcreate.com