An exemplary mold assembly includes a mold providing a cavity, and a heating element configured to heat a first portion of the mold at a first rate to melt a first amount of metal powder within the cavity, and further configured to heat a second portion of the mold at a different second rate to melt a second amount of powder within the cavity. The heating element includes a portion on a first side of the cavity and a portion on an opposing, second side of the cavity. The heating element is configured to receive the mold such that the heating element extends circumferentially about an entire perimeter of the mold.

A configurable end-effector is provided for a robotic system used in a casting process. The end-effector can have one or more ablate and/or cooling modules that can apply an ablating material and/or cooling fluid to a mold for the solidification or the solid to solid transformation of the metal component of the part to be cast or formed in the mold or tooling. The end-effector may incorporate one or more air push or vacuum modules that can be used to remove or move the ablate material phase state change and/or the cooling fluid after the ablate material and/or cooling fluid absorbs heat from the part. The end-effector can include one or more energy modules that can be used to introduce heat to the mold and/or tooling and the formed component part so that additional processes can be performed on the component part. The end-effector may have one or more sensing modules that can determine the temperature and location of the part and then provide that information to a controller to control the operation of the various energy modulus that control energy extraction or cooling and input energy to offset any energy loss to the system prior, during, or thereafter a state change occurs of the component material within the ablate mold and tooling both in liquid and solid conditions or with various solid fraction of the cast material.

A method for manufacturing an alloy component includes forming a mold including a first mold portion and a second mold portion defining a mold cavity therebetween. At least one of the first and second mold portions comprise one or more inserts disposed through an outside surface of a respective mold portion and extending through the respective mold portion proximate to the mold cavity. The method can include delivering a molten alloy into the mold cavity and supporting by the one or more inserts, the molten metal as the molten metal cools to form a part. The one or more inserts can comprise a plurality of hollow tubes extending therethrough, and can enable cooling and/or heating of the molten alloy and/or alloy part through the plurality of hollow tubes.