The agricultural equipment manufacturer used a 3-D printing machine to prove out a new part as a casting, saving time and money.
SHANNON WETZEL, SENIOR EDITOR
“If this wasn’t an option, the farmer
would need two implements,” said Kevin Reade, an engineer for Great Plains. “It’s basically two machines in one, and when the fi rst version came out, it was very diffi cult to take the assembly on and off .” T e basic idea for the mount was
to facilitate easier removal by reducing the amount of hardware used. Great Plains needed the mount in time for its dealers’ meetings, a three-week period in July during which farm equipment dealers from across the country visit the facility to check out its latest products. Most familiar with weldments, Reade fi rst sketched out a model of the part as a fabrication requiring four bolt holes. “Four bolts per row, with between 11 and 17 rows per machine, would be too tedious,” Reade said. T e part
was a prime candidate for casting. Reade worked with Spaeny and tool designer Erik T orsell, who have experience designing castings, to refi ne the mount’s shape and structure. T ey eliminated two bolt holes by incor- porating a loop that hooks onto the equipment, instead of being bolted on, before creating the fi rst plastic pattern on the 3-D printer. Great Plains partnered with Kansas
Castings, Belle Plaine, Kan., a nobake and green sand casting facility two hours south of Salina, to pour the prototype castings. “T is was the fi rst time I had ever seen patterns made of that material,” said Don Hibbs, Kansas Castings plant manager. “T e material was a little rough and fragile, but we were able to make good castings from the fi rst pattern.” According to Spaeny, the fi rst
plastic pattern printed for the mount castings took 50 hours on the 3-D machine, but those weren’t man-hours. “We just pushed a button and let it run, 24 hours a day,” he said. Great Plains personnel performed
some body work on the pattern in the shop to smooth out the rough edges, which Spaeny estimated took seven man-hours. If the company had prototyped and tested the part as a weldment, it would have taken considerably more labor.
@
ONLINE RESOURCE
Visit
www.moderncasting.com for more photos of Great Plains’ prototype method and castings.
Jul/Aug 2012 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 23
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