POLYCAST, A Doncasters group company
Historically Polycast, a Doncasters group company, have been a market leading specialist investment casting foundry. They produce highly finished investment cast products and offer skilled technical advice and implementation from their UK based manufacturing facility.
Today’s Polycast now offers an in-depth and wide range of metal forming solution from the UK and Indian network. With Clients across the world, Polycast are the perfect partner for your metal component requirements.
In 1946, Michael S. Gibb started his business manufacturing fittings for yacht decks and rigs. Initially he purchased metal castings for this purpose, but in 1974 created a new department at Warsash, near Southampton in the United Kingdom, to cast his own requirements by the lost-wax process.
For nearly 38 years the company served an increasingly diverse range of industries. This enabled Polycast to develop and refine their material and production knowledge drawing from their experience serving other industries.
In 1984 the company underwent a management buy-out and the present Polycast Limited was born.
In 2022 Polycast was acquired by Doncasters, and becomes a Doncasters group company.
The present-day company is serving an increasingly diverse range of industries. This enabled Polycast to develop and refine their material and production knowledge drawing from their experience serving other industries.
The Rolls Royce ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’. The world’s most recognised car mascot has evolved since the first sculptures nearly 100 years ago. Polycast Ltd are proud to have played an integral part in the evolution and restoration of a heritage icon.
Capabilities
- Exact Wax replicas of the item to be cast are produced by injecting hot wax into a metal mould.
- The wax replicas are assembled onto a specially designed wax tree. The tree is designed to incorporate the wax channels, to ensure the molten alloy flows into the moulds efficiently.
- The design ensures the molten metal reaches every area of the mould to produce the specified dimensions and metallurgy.
- The wax tree is dipped in ceramic slurry, which is then coated with zircon sand in a dedicated coating cabinet.
- The coated wax trees are dried in humidity controlled air cabinet.
- The dried trees are put into an autoclave where pressurised steam melts the wax out of the ceramic moulds leaving an exact mould to create the cast in.
- The ceramic moulds are forwarded to the foundry where technicians have checked the composition and temperature of the metal prior to casting. This metal is then introduced to the moulds.
- Once the metal has cooled sufficiently the ceramic shell is vibrated off the cast product by the use of a pneumatic knockout machine.
- Any remnants of the ceramic mould is removed by stainless steel shot in a rotary peening machine.
- The metal tree containing the cast products have the stems sawn off by a carborundum wheel.
- The cast products are sent to the finishing department where they are machined, heated treated, polished and assembled as required.
Downloads:
Turning Concepts into Reality
Innovation in casting is important to keep this method of metal forming relevant in todays fast moving market. Polycast are working closely with the 3D printing industry to provide cost effective models for investment casting.

Benefits:
Decreases development time
Facilitates corrections to a product early in the process.
Increased communication
Enables, marketing, manufacturing and purchasing personnel to analyse the proposed product early in the design process.
Increased effectiveness
Maximise the product effectiveness by adding necessary features and eliminating redundant ones prior to production.
Decreases costly mistakes
Enables the design team to analyse the product physically, early in the design process allowing for mistakes to be corrected and changes made while they are still inexpensive.
Increases product development
Rapid prototyping enables multiple versions of a product to be produced and evaluated in days instead of weeks allowing a client to refine a design.
Construction
Objects can be formed with any geometric complexity and intricacy without incurring the costs of machinery setup and complex assembly.
Testing
The ability to prototype enables our clients to perform functional testing with regards to the products final application, form, mechanical and material performance
Polycast and our rapid prototyping facility will enable you to develop products more efficiently and cost effectively.
The investment casting process is economical for small quantities and many thousands alike and requires little, if any, finishing operations. Smooth surfaced intricate and delicate shapes, which would be impossible to machine or forge, can be produced by the investment casting process.
What’s more, investment casting cuts component unit prices dramatically by eliminating or reducing machining to the bare minimum. Often, a single casting can replace a multiple part assembly.

Many decades of our technical teams experience and knowledge is considered a unique selling point over our competition.
The Polycast Ltd engineering team have between them many decades of experience and knowledge. This enables the team to work closely with clients at the design stage advising on both specification and production aspects.
Polycast Limited is ready to contribute to the design processes and will make sample castings for trials or approval by the customer. The development phase is completed when the wax mould is finished and approved, ready for production.

Polycast Limited offer fully finished, machining and assembly services to our customers. These services can generally include taking the raw casting and adding heat-treatment or surface treatments.
The treatments
we offer:
- Burnishing
- Electro-polishing
- Hand polishing
- Machining
- Cold setting
- Painting
- Anodising
- Black coating
- Hot dip galvanizing
- Zinc plating
- Grain etching
Services
we offer:
- Assembly
- Welding
- Mechanical testing
- Dye-penetrant
- Proof load testing
- x-ray
- Chemical analysis
- Metallurgical section work
Polycast Limited is approved to ISO9001:2018 & ISO 450001:2018 in the UK and ensure that all our partner and sub-contractors work to the same high standards. As in May 2018 Polycast achieved Fit 4 Nuclear from the Nuclear AMRC. This allows Polycast to high light our quality of product and management systems within this critical industry.
Polycast has an ethos of continuous improvement using 5S and are currently working towards our ISO 14001, ISO 13485 (Medical) and other industry accreditations.
Our quality assurance section:
Validates that all incoming materials are to specification.
Monitors the correct performance of each production process on each list.
Inspects and tests final products ready for dispatch.
The company’s laboratory includes a wide range of equipment. Samples are provided to enable the customer to check that a new product is in accordance with the specification and fit for the purpose in all respects.
Here at Polycast we are proud of numerous Blue-Chip company approvals, including Rolls-Royce Motors and British Aerospace along with many others.
Polycast Limited is a proud member of:
With the pressure for manufacturing from low cost countries, since 2015 Polycast have been building a substantial network within India.
Basing ourselves in the Gugarat region north west of Mumbai the Polycast network can offer a turn key solution for casting to fully finished and assembled components.
Even though Investment casting is our specialty in the UK, within India Polycast we can offer many more metal forming methods.
Polycast India has strengths in Forging, Sand casting, High pressure Die casting, Gravity die casting and Metal injection moulding. This allows Polycast to find the best solution and method for your production. There is also scope to change a method as your volumes dictate, to find the most cost-effective metal forming solution. Since 2018 Polycast India offers machine from solid and extruded component.
The key to our success is a fully employed Polycast team in-country. The focus for these team members is to work with the foundries to improve the process and method of casting. They also ensure the highest quality standards and inspection of product prior to leaving India.
The management and negotiation of logistics is another key function. Not only between India and the UK or any other country, but secure movement between manufacturing partners to protect intellectual property of your product.
Polycast Ltd has a strict audit and policy prior to selecting an offshore partner. Only the foundries and machine shops that meet these criteria are selected to join the Polycast network.
Polycast Ltd are the perfect partner for secure low-cost country manufacturing.
REGISTERED OFFICE
Address
Repton House
Bretby Business Park,
Ashby Road,
Burton-upon-Trent,
England,
DE15 0YZ
SOUTHAMPTON – UK
Phone
+44(0)1489 885560
Address
Polycast Limited
Clock Tower Buildings,
Shore Road Warsash,
Southampton, UK
SO31 9GQ
FAREHAM – UK
Phone
+44(0)1489 885560
Address
Unit 6 & 7 Concorde Park,
Concorde Way,
Segensworth North,
Fareham
PO15 5FG