What are your strengths and unique selling points?
Rapid is a full-service investment-casting house. Our goal is to bring efficiency, quality and expert knowledge to our jewellery CAD/CAM and investment casting services. We are qualified jewellers who can advise on every aspect of production. We find this helps identify potential problems early and improves job turnaround times.
Our online quoting and ordering system allows customers to upload CAD files, obtain instant quotes for wax printing and casting, and submit orders. Every part is barcode-tracked so production status can be monitored online.
How long have you operated in the casting industry?
Rapid started as a CAD/CAM service provider in 2005. We began offering casting services in 2009. We have seen the industry change a great deal in the past 10 years.
Is all work cast in Australia, or is some partially done offshore?
We do everything in Australia and strongly believe in the Australian-made business ethic. All CAD, 3D printing and casting is completed in Sydney and our staff are experienced jewellers, which means that we can assist with achieving the best quality outcome on every job.
Can you cast all common alloys of silver, 9ct, 14ct, 18ct, platinum and palladium?
We cast all precious metals including silver, gold (yellow, white, rose), platinum and palladium. We can also cast customer-specific alloys on request. In addition, we offer a plastic prototype service to help customers verify CAD designs with their clients.
Do you offer Computer Aided Design (CAD) services?
We are CAD specialists! We offer a full in-house CAD design service. Customers can submit new design requests online through our design portal. This provides a convenient platform for securely uploading images and sketches, and communicating directly with our designers.
Do you automatically rectify CAD problems, or charge separately?
All files uploaded to our website for instant quotes are automatically scanned for errors and customers are instantly notified if there is a problem. This gives our customers an opportunity to correct the error.
If a customer calls us we can inspect the file and if it’s nothing serious we sort it out free of charge. Some major file errors are beyond fixing so the customer needs to go back to their CAD file to redo the work.
What is your copyright policy regarding customer supplied CAD files?
All files are confidential and remain the customer’s intellectual property. We also have a standard non-disclosure agreement to give customers peace of mind.
Do you offer moulding services?
We offer a full vulcanised and RTV cold mould service.
If so, who owns the final moulds?
The customer owns the mould and has complete control of it.
What is the typical turnaround time for creations if:
Customer supplied wax: Customer waxes are cast overnight.
Customer CAD for print or cast: CAD files are printed overnight and cast the following day.
Customer sketch for CAD and cast: CAD design to casting takes 2-5 days, depending on customer approval time and the complexity of the design.
Do you have a high success rate on casting volatile metals such as palladium?
We have an excellent success rate with high temperature inert gas casting platinum and palladium.
What is your recast policy if items are porous or faulty upon receipt?
We guarantee all our castings and have an open return policy. This means customers can return any item for a full refund or
recast if they aren’t happy with the results, even if there is simply a change in design. Nobody plans such events but they can happen and we are here to support our customers.
If a customer provides wax, are there any materials not accepted for casting?
We accept all waxes for casting. For any obscure materials we generally ask the customer to provide extra sample pieces along with the part so we can ascertain if it will successfully burn out before casting the part. If there are issues at this stage we generally make an RTV mould.
Are there any Polymer/ABS/SLA materials you do not accept for casting?
We accept CAD/CAM outputs from all 3D printers. If there is a material we haven’t worked with before we ask customers to send extra parts to see how they burn out.
If a part doesn’t work we reprint it in-house on one of our machines.
If so, can you make that determination prior to it going onto a tree and the casting failing?
There are so many new 3D printers on the market now. Some of these materials cast and some don’t. It’s impossible to know in advance without testing.
Do you offer RTV for ‘suspect’ waxes/polymers to protect against failures?
We offer RTV moulding for obscure materials and we can also reprint the part in-house if time is an issue.
Casting report