Investment Casting Was the Secret to Perfect Balconies on Our Last Job
Practicing architecture in New Orleans offers a lot of unique challenges, beyond the poor ground conditions, hurricanes, and wet weather. Clients here love traditional design, with all of its antique touches like wrought iron and vibrant paint work. The last job my firm did involved restoring a lot of very intricate wrought iron balcony work, and the client was adamant that we provide new material as close to the original as possible. The secret to doing that turned out to be lost-wax casting, also known as investment casting. This is where a mold is made around a wax model, which is then removed and replaced with metal. Lucky for us, this process is still used for manufacturing a lot of complex parts today, so we had no trouble locating a professional company that specializes in these castings. They were even able to use some of the building’s original cast iron to model the replacement pieces on!
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