Preparation of high temperature shell molds

Claim 1

A process for preparing a shell mold which comprises coating an expendable pattern with a composition containing a binder which is substantially free of water and a refractory material in which the ratio of refractory material to binder is from about 4 to 50 parts of refractory material per part of binder SiO 2 , said binder consisting essentially of a prehydrolyzed alkyl orthosilicate in which the alkyl group has from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, an aminoalcohol of the formula HORN(R').sub.2 in which R is a divalent hydrocarbon radical having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, R' is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, an alkyl radical and a radical of the formula --ROH in which R is the same as above, in which the mol ratio of aminoalcohol to alkyl orthosilicate is from 1:1 to 10:1 and sufficient organic solvent to provide an SiO 2 content of from 10 to 35 percent by weight based on the weight of the binder, stuccoing the coated pattern, air drying and repeating the above sequence of steps until a coating of desired thickness is achieved.