Dental Casting

Investment Materials
Dr. Deepak K. Gupta
 Introduction
• A material which is suitable for forming a mould
into which molten metal or alloy is cast.
• These materials can withstand high
temperatures.
• Also known as refractory materials.
• In general, an investment is a mixture of three
distinct types of materials
– Refractory material,
– Binder material
– Other chemicals

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 Components of Investment
• Refractory Material
– a form of silicon dioxide, such as quartz, tridymite, or
cristobalite, or a mixture of these
– They serve two functions:
• Acts as a material that can withstand high temperatures.
• Regulates the thermal expansion.
• Binder Material
– refractory materials alone do not form a coherent solid mass,
– Some kind of binder is needed. Ex: Gypsum, phosphate,
ethyl silicate
• Other Chemicals
– sodium chloride, boric acid, potassium sulfate, graphite,
copper powder, or magnesium oxide,
– Small quantities - modify various physical properties.
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Properties Required of an Investment
• Easily manipulated
• Sufficient strength at room temperature
• Stability at higher temperatures
• Sufficient expansion: compensate for shrinkage
of the wax pattern and metal.
• Porosity: porous enough to permit the air or
other gases in the mold cavity to escape.
• Smooth surface: Fine detail and margins on the
casting.
• Ease of divestment
• Inexpensive.
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 Types of Investment
• Based on the nature of Binder, its classified on
3 types
– Gypsum bonded investments: used for casting gold
alloys, withstand temperature up to 700°C.
– Phosphate bonded investments: For metal ceramic
and cobalt-chromium alloys, withstand higher
temperatures.
– Ethyl silica bonded investments
• alternative to the phosphate bonded investments, for
high temperature casting.
• Principally used in the casting of base metal alloy partial
dentures
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 Gypsum Bonded Investments
• ADA Sp. No. 2 for gold alloy casting investments
again classify it 3 types.
• Constituents
– 65% to 75%: quartz or cristobalite, or a blend of the two,
– 25% to 45%: α-calcium sulfate hemihydrate
– 2% to 3% chemical modifiers

Investment Use compensation for alloy casting shrinkage

Type I casting of inlays or Thermal expansion
crowns of the investment
Type II casting inlays, hygroscopic expansion achieved by immersing
onlays, or crowns the invested ring in a warm water bath
Type III casting gold alloys Thermal
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 Gypsum: α-calcium sulfate
hemihydrate
• Casting gold-containing alloys
with melting ranges below
1000 °C
• Material is heated at
temperatures sufficiently high
– 200-400 °C: shrink considerably
– 400 °C - 700 °C : slight
expansion takes place between
– Above : decomposition and the
release of sulfur dioxide
causing contamination of alloy

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 Silica
• It exists in 4 allotropic forms: quartz, tridymite,
cristobalite and fused quartz.
– Quartz and cristobalite are of dental importance
• Investment should expand thermally -
compensate partially or totally for the casting
shrinkage of the solidifying alloy.
• Gypsum - shrinks considerably when it is heated,
– so it should be silica which should expand to cause
overall expansion of investment

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 Silica
• When heated allotropes
of silica changes from α
(low room temperature
form) to β (high
temperature form)
– Phase transformation is
called an inversion.
– Causes linear expansion
– overall causing volume
expansion

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 MODIFIERS
• Certain modifying agents
– Coloring matter,
– Reducing agents, such as
carbon and powdered
copper,
• Alkali-earth and
transition-metal chlorides,
boric acid, and sodium
chloride
– regulate the setting
expansion and the setting
time

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 Properties
• Setting time: set initially in 9
to 18 mins
– It can be manipulated in the
same way as of gypsum
product
• NORMAL SETTING
EXPANSION
– silica particles probably
interfere with the
intermeshing and interlocking
of the crystals
– thrust of the crystals is
outward during growth,
– Soft wax and thin pattern may
get distorted, facebook.com/notesdental
 Properties: HYGROSCOPIC SETTING
EXPANSION
• Expansion when contact
with heated water.
• Greater in magnitude
than normal setting
expansion
• Type II investments :
1.2% - 2.2%
• Directly proportional
– Silica content of the
investment
– Water mixed during
setting reaction A, Normal setting expansion
B, Hygroscopic setting expansion
• Indirectly proportional :
size of silica particles
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 Properties: THERMAL EXPANSION

• Thermal expansion of silica must be increased to

counterbalance the contraction of the gypsum
• Contraction of the gypsum is entirely balanced
when the quartz content is increased to 75%
• Type I: 1% - 1.6%, Type II: - 0% and 0.6% at 500 °C
• It depends on
– Particle size of the quartz,
– Type of gypsum binder: α or β
– Resultant W/P ratio
– Allotropes of quartz : Cristobalite > quartz

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 Properties
• THERMAL CONTRACTION
– Inversion of the β form to its stable α form at
room temperature.
– Contracts to less than its original dimension
• EFFECT OF CHEMICAL MODIFIERS
– Increasing the silica content – reduces the
strength of investment
– Small amounts of sodium, potassium, lithium
chlorides or boric acid – eliminates the need for
adding silica to cause expansion
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 Properties
• STRENGTH
– Adequate to prevent cracking, bulk fracture, or
chipping of the mold
– affected by the W/P ratio same way as gypsum.
– It decreases after heating to 700 0C – microcracks
• FINENESS
– Fine silica results in a higher hygroscopic expansion
– Also it will give finer details accurately and minimal
surface roughness.

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 PHOSPHATE-BONDED INVESTMENT
• Increased use of metal-ceramic, hot-pressed
ceramic prostheses and base metal alloy –
requires investment which can bear higher
temperature
• Phosphate-bonded or silicate-bonded
investments can be used in such condition
• But they are difficult to disinvest – however
these problem has been sorted out recently.

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 COMPOSITION
• Refractory filler: silica (80% by weight) in the form of
cristobalite, quartz, or a mixture of the two forms.
– particle size varies from a submicron level to that of a fine sand
• Binder: magnesium oxide (basic) and a phosphate (acid)
– Originally phosphoric acid was used, but monoammonium
phosphate has replaced
• Other: Carbon
– Produce clean castings and facilitate the divesting of the casting
from the investment mold
– Appropriate when the casting alloy is gold
– Others: palladium reacts with carbon at temperatures above
1504 °C to make it brittle
• Colloidal silica suspensions in place of water
– Greater expansion: newer gold-containing alloys and other
alloys - higher melting temperature ranges than traditional gold
alloys, facebook.com/notesdental
 SETTING REACTION
• Ammonium diacid phosphate reacts with
magnesium oxide - green strength, or room
temperature stregth.
• ammonium diacid phosphate is used in a
greater amount.
• additional amount can react with silica at an
elevated temperature
– P2O5 and SiO2 forms silicophosphate
– increases the strength of investment

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 SETTING AND THERMAL EXPANSION
• slight expansion occurs
compared to gypsum bonded
• increased considerably by using
a colloidal silica solution in
place of water
• early thermal shrinkage -
decomposition of the binder,
accompanied by evolution of
ammonia.
• Gypsum investments the
shrinkage is caused by the
transformation of calcium
sulfate from the hexagonal to
the rhombic form.
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 WORKING AND SETTING TIME
• markedly affected by temperature
– warmer the mix, the faster it sets
– setting reaction itself gives off heat, and this
further accelerates the rate of setting
• Increased mixing time and mixing efficiency,
– result in a faster set
– Better smoothness and accuracy of the casting.
– Mechanical mixing under vacuum is preferred
• L/P ratio
– increase in the L/P ratio increases the working time
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 SURFACE QUALITY OF CAST METALS
• In the past, detail reproduction
and surface smoothness were
inferior to gypsum bonded
• increasing the ratio of special
liquid to water used for the mix
– gave a better details
• lead to oversized extracoronal
castings
• Improvement in the technique
and also in
the investment composition -
few surface imperfections
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 ETHYL SILICATE–BONDED
INVESTMENT
• Its use has declined - more complex and time-
consuming procedures
• But still used in the construction of high-fusing
base metal partial denture alloys.
• Here the binder is silica gel.
• Its made either by 2 method from
– Sodium Silicate
– Ethyl silicate

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 Types
• Sodium silicate
– pH lowered by addition of an acid or an
acid salt,
– a bonding silicic acid gel forms.
– Accelerator: ammonium chloride
• Ethyl silicate
• It is hydrolyzed in the presence of hydrochloric acid, ethyl
alcohol, and water.
• Sol is then mixed with quartz or cristobalite,
• Finely powdered magnesium oxide is added - keep the mixture
alkaline.
• A coherent gel of polysilicic acid then forms, accompanied by a
setting shrinkage
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 Ethyl silicate
• When this soft gel is dried at a temperature
below 168 °C
– loses alcohol and water to form a concentrated, hard
gel
– Green shrinkage, which is additive to the setting
shrinkage
– As well it takes longer time to hydrolyze and gelation –
amines can be added to faster the reaction
• Thus in this type of investment, mold enlargement
should compensate not only casting shrinkage,
but green shrinkage and setting shrinkage
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 Manipulation
• The powder is added to the hydrolyzed ethyl silicate liquid,
mixed quickly, and vibrated into a mold that has an extra
collar to increase the height
• The mold is placed on the platform of a special type of
vibrator that provides a so-called tamping action.
• This allows the heavier particles to settle quickly while the
excess liquid and some of the fine particles rise to the top.
• In about 30 minutes, the accelerator in the powder hardens
the settled part and the excess at the top is poured off.
• Thus, the L/P ratio in the settled part is greatly reduced and
the setting shrinkage is reduced to 0.1%.
• The remaining cast is somewhat fragile because the
amount of binder is quite low and it is essentially
composed of silica.
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 Various Investment
Material

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 References
• Phillips' Science of Dental Materials- Phillip
Anusavice_12th
• Basic Dental Materials -2nd.ed Mannapalli
• Clinical Aspects of Dental Materials Theory,
Practice, and Cases, 4th Edition
• Craig's Restorative Dental Material 13th
edition

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 THANKS……
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