The history of lost-wax casting dates back
thousands of years. Its earliest use was for idols, ornaments and jewellery,
using natural beeswax for patterns, clay for the moulds and manually operated
bellows for stoking furnaces. Examples have been found across the world, such
as in the Harappan Civilisation (2500–2000 BC) idols,
Egypt's tombs of Tutankhamun (1333–1324 BC),
Mesopotamia, Aztec and Mayan Mexico, and the Benin civilization in Africa where
the process produced detailed artwork of copper, bronze and gold.
The earliest known text that describes the
Investment casting process (Schedula Diversarum Artium) was written around 1100
A.D. by Theophilus Presbyter, a monk who described various manufacturing
processes, including the recipe for parchment. This book was used by sculptor
and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), who detailed
in his autobiography the investment casting process he used for the Perseus
with the Head of Medusa sculpture that stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi in
Florence, Italy.
Investment casting came into use as a
modern industrial process in the late 19th century, when dentists began using
it to make crowns and inlays, as described by Barnabas Frederick Philbrook of
Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1897,. Its use was accelerated by William H. Taggart of
Chicago, whose 1907 paper described his development of a technique. He also
formulated a wax pattern compound of excellent properties, developed an
investment material, and invented an air-pressure casting machine.
In the 1940s, World War II increased the
demand for precision net shape manufacturing and specialized alloys that could
not be shaped by traditional methods, or that required too much machining.
Industry turned to investment casting. After the war, its use spread to many
commercial and industrial applications that used complex metal parts.