Executive Summary
Investment casting has been the gold standard for producing complex metal parts for over 5,000 years. Yet the process has remained remarkably unchanged in the modern industrial era. Manufacturers still rely on expensive, time-consuming tooling to create wax patterns, ceramic cores, and shell molds before a single metal part can be poured.
DDM Systems has fundamentally disrupted this paradigm. Using patented LAMP™ (Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization) technology, DDM’s Digital Foundry™ produces investment casting molds directly from CAD files, eliminating seven of twelve traditional process steps and removing the need for tooling entirely.
The result is a manufacturing process that is 10x faster, 50% less expensive, and capable of producing geometries that were previously impossible to cast.
| 10x Faster Than Traditional | 50% Cost Reduction | 7 of 12 Steps Eliminated | 90% Scrap Reduction |
The Problem With Traditional Investment Casting
The traditional investment casting process involves twelve distinct steps, each requiring specialized equipment, skilled labor, and significant lead time. For a new part, the process typically unfolds over 52 to 80 weeks before the first casting is produced.
The Twelve Steps of Traditional Investment Casting
The conventional process requires the following sequence, each step building on the previous one and each introducing potential sources of defect or delay.
| Step | Process | Time Impact |
| 1 | Core tooling design | 2-4 weeks |
| 2 | Core tooling manufacture | 8-16 weeks |
| 3 | Ceramic core injection | 1-2 weeks |
| 4 | Wax tooling design | 2-4 weeks |
| 5 | Wax tooling manufacture | 8-16 weeks |
| 6 | Wax pattern injection | 1-2 weeks |
| 7 | Wax meltout and burnout | 1-3 days |
| 8 | Slurry coating | 1-2 weeks |
| 9 | Stucco coating | Concurrent with slurry |
| 10 | Shell baking | 1-2 days |
| 11 | Metal pouring, casting, solidification | 1-3 days |
| 12 | Finishing and handiwork | 1-2 weeks |
Steps 1 through 9 exist solely to create the ceramic mold that holds the molten metal during casting. These nine steps represent the majority of lead time, the majority of cost, and the majority of scrap sources in the entire process.
The tooling alone can cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if a design change is required after tooling is complete, the entire tooling process must begin again from scratch.
The DDM Solution
DDM’s LAMP™ technology replaces the first nine steps of the traditional process with a single additive manufacturing step. A ceramic shell with fully integrated cores is 3D printed directly from a CAD file, producing a ready-to-pour mold in days rather than months.
The DirectPour™ Process
DDM’s end-to-end process, called DirectPour™, requires only five steps.
- Receive CAD model from the customer with alloy and quantity specifications
- 3D print the ceramic shell with integrated cores using LAMP™ technology
- Post-process through binder burnout and high-temperature sintering
- Pour metal using standard investment casting techniques at DDM or partner foundries
- Finish with standard post-casting operations
| Key Insight The DirectPour™ process eliminates all tooling design, tooling manufacture, core injection, wax injection, wax meltout, slurry coating, and stucco coating steps. The ceramic shell goes directly from digital file to finished mold. |
How LAMP™ Technology Works
LAMP stands for Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization. The technology uses UV light projected through a high-resolution optical system to selectively cure a proprietary ceramic slurry, building the mold layer by layer at 100-micron resolution (approximately the thickness of a human hair).
Each layer is deposited as a thin film of ceramic-filled photosensitive resin. The printer head projects a patterned beam of UV light onto the layer, curing only the areas that correspond to the mold geometry. The process repeats thousands of times to build the complete three-dimensional structure.
After printing, the green body undergoes thermal processing to burn out the polymer binder and sinter the ceramic particles into a fully dense, high-strength shell. The result is a monolithic ceramic mold with integrated cores, ready for metal pouring.
| Parameter | Capability |
| Build Volume (Production) | 600 x 600 x 600mm (24″ x 24″ x 24″) |
| Layer Thickness | 50-100 microns |
| Pixel Size / Resolution | 15 microns per beam (4.1 million UV beams) |
| Pixel Density | 4,444 to 9,700 pixels/mm² |
| Positioning Accuracy | +/- 2 microns in XYZ |
| Throughput | 36,000 cm³ of printed molds per day |
| Surface Finish | <4 microns RMS |
| Density | >99.5% |
The Economic Case for Tooling-Free Casting
The elimination of tooling transforms the economics of investment casting across every dimension of the value chain.
Cost Comparison
Traditional investment casting carries heavy front-loaded costs. Tooling for a single part can range from $25,000 to $250,000 or more depending on complexity. These costs must be amortized across the production run, making low-volume production economically prohibitive for many applications.
DDM’s approach eliminates this upfront investment entirely. The cost per part is driven by material volume, print time, and post-processing, not by tooling amortization. This makes short runs, prototypes, and even single-piece production economically viable.
| Factor | Traditional | DDM DirectPour™ |
| Upfront Tooling Cost | $25,000 to $250,000+ | $0 |
| Lead Time to First Part | 52 to 80 weeks | As few as 10 days |
| Design Change Cost | New tooling required | Update CAD file only |
| Minimum Viable Quantity | Hundreds (for ROI) | One part |
| Scrap Rate | Industry baseline | 90% reduction |
| Process Steps | 12 | 5 |
| Overall Cost Reduction | Baseline | Up to 50% |
Energy and Sustainability Impact
DDM’s process has been validated through an ARPA-E project with GE to achieve energy consumption reductions of up to 90% compared to traditional investment casting. This dramatic improvement comes from the elimination of energy-intensive tooling manufacture, wax processing, and multi-stage shell building.
With 30% of aerospace aluminum now sourced from recycled materials and increasing pressure from corporate sustainability mandates, the environmental advantages of digital casting are becoming a significant procurement consideration.
Proven Results Across Industries
DDM has delivered precision castings to customers across aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, medical, and industrial sectors.
Fighter Aircraft Roll Ratio Servo Cover
Partners: DDM, Signicast, Moog | Material: Aluminum A357
A legacy fighter jet component was produced in 39 days from CAD to first casting, compared to over 100 days through the traditional supply chain. No tooling was required. No wax pattern was needed. The result was a rapid, on-demand certified spare part for an active military platform.
Aviation Oil Pump Manifold
Partners: DDM, Signicast | Material: Aluminum A357
This component featured multiple curvilinear internal channels that previously required 12 separate sets of soluble wax core tooling. DDM’s LAMP™ technology printed the entire shell with integrated cores in a single build, reducing the entire process to two steps.
Closed Impeller for Fluid Handling
Material: Stainless Steel 316L | Dimensions: 100mm diameter, 25mm height
Complex internal vanes were cast to production quality with chemistry, metallurgical properties, and mechanical performance consistent with conventional investment castings. No tooling, no soluble wax cores, and no secondary finishing were required.
Material Capabilities
DDM produces parts in hundreds of standard alloys compatible with both air-melt and vacuum-melt foundry processes. All castings meet ASTM standards and Investment Casting Institute stated ranges.
| Category | Alloys |
| Stainless Steels | 304, 316, 17-4 PH, 15-5 PH, CF3M |
| Aluminum | A356, A357, A380 |
| Nickel (Air-Melt) | Inconel 625, Inconel 718 |
| Superalloys (Vacuum) | IN 713LC, MAR-M247, IN100, CMSX-4 |
| Directionally Solidified | René 141, René 80, René 142 |
| Single Crystal | CMSX-4, René N5 |
| Tool Steels | S7 Tool Steel |
| Medical | Cobalt Chromium Moly (ASTM F75) |
Conclusion
The age of tooling-dependent investment casting is ending. Ceramic 3D printing has reached the maturity, resolution, and throughput required to serve production applications across the most demanding industries in the world.
DDM Systems’ LAMP™ technology and DirectPour™ process represent the most advanced implementation of this transformation. Backed by 26+ patents, over a decade of development, DARPA and ARPA-E funding, and partnerships with organizations including GE, Signicast, and the U.S. Air Force, DDM is the only company delivering tooling-free precision castings as an end-to-end service.
For manufacturers facing long lead times, high tooling costs, and supply chain fragility, the Digital Foundry™ offers a fundamentally better path forward.