750446Alternative heating process to recover & re-use more wax & reduce pollutionClosedVouchersInnovate UKWe produce castings using ‘lost wax’ process. Wax is expensive & can only be used once as a pattern wax due to thermal degradation. Wax undergoes repeated thermal cycling. The process is wasteful of wax because a significant amount can remain in the shell and is burnt off when the ceramic is fired, producing a lot of soot. Our idea is to use an alternative heating technology for wax at all stages to reduce residence time at temp. & so reduce thermal degradation. This will enable us to reduce wax wastage and re-use wax in-house before returning wax to the supplier for reprocessing. This technology would enable us to re-use much of our wax for primary patterns saving significant wax costs. It would reduce furnace stack soot and the costs of scrubbing this. The reduction in energy used to heat only the wax would save money, reduce our Carbon footprint, and improve our competitiveness and in turn increase our sales. Savings could amount to £100,000 and increased sales could reach 5% = £250,000.