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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 con- siderably more labor. “To make this part
as a weldment, it would have taken about 13 individual parts welded together,” Reade said. “And you wouldn’t get what you really wanted. Te weldment would give you functionality and that is it.”
As a visible piece on the assembled fertil- izing equipment, the cast mount improved the appearance of the
Kansas Castings produced 40 castings using the plastic pattern Great Plains produced on its 3D printing machine.
assembly and gave it a cleaner look, according to Spaeny. Kansas Castings used the first pat-
tern to produce four of the castings on its nobake line. “We didn’t make any process adjust- ments other than to be sure we didn’t abuse the tooling,” Hibbs said. “We used a direct pour sleeve for the first
pour to reduce rigging time and cost.” Spaeny and company were pleased with the results but saw more improvements could be made.
Design Changes on the Fly As an assembly a farmer would
physically remove and reattach, Great Plains wanted to keep the quick-attach mount light. Te whole assembly was already nearing 70 lbs. “We wanted to take
some weight off of this thing,” Spaeny said. “You pay for extra weight, no doubt, and it was heavy enough as it was.” To reduce weight and
improve castability, Great Plains replaced two bosses and some gusseting with one long cylinder down the outer side of the part. Te designers also added a loop so farmers could use a hoist to pick up the component. “I had the concept,
August 2012 MODERN CASTING | 33
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