weight out of a component is a huge driver, Murray sees additive manufac- turing playing the hero’s role. “If you can make a casting with-
out draft and take a pound out of an aircraft part, you are a god,” he said. Ingenuity abounds even in shipping.
Hoosier Pattern can ship cores printed within a thin-walled printed sand box that is then fi lled with loose sand. “You could print a box in a box in
a box, making it all at once,” Murray said. “You are limited only by your imagination.” In production scenarios, core
printing is emerging as a valuable tool for intricate parts requiring extensive core assemblies. Hoosier Pattern often ships cores that will be placed in tradi- tional green sand or nobake molds in metalcasting facilities. “You can make the mold your way
and have a core inside that is made with a 3D printer. You can have a green sand cope with a printed drag, if that is what it takes to get the design you want,” Murray said. “Right now, we are doing some production runs of over 2,000 pieces a year. In the realm of aircraft, marine and heavy equip- ment, this is very doable.”
OEMs are also using the technol-
ogy to serve as gap fi llers when a few parts are needed right away while tooling is made for full production, or when a legacy part needs to be re- placed and the tooling no longer exists. “It’s not going to be the answer
every time,” Murray said. “It is going to serve a niche to solve a techni- cal problem. And when it does that, everyone feels like a champion.”
Hurdles
Because the technology and invest- ment in equipmenr required is expen- sive and so few domestic businesses have 3D printing capabilities, additive manufacturing in sand has only been adopted by a few, but that is changing. “It’s interesting that work in sand
printing technology has been ignored until recently,” Grimm said. “But now it has been a growth area and one of interest to people.” Organizations such as the Ad-
ditive Manufacturing Users Group have been collaborating with additive manufacturing equipment suppliers and colleges such as UNI to fi nd ways to reduce cost and help industry gain full value of the process.
MEDIA
RESOURCE Using the Actable App, scan this page
to see a video of additive manu- facturing in action at Hoosier Pat- tern. To watch online, go to
www.metalcastingtv.com.
“T e cost is relatively high, but the cost benefi ts are relatively high,” T iel said. “T e industry has to determine the sweet spot for cost eff ectiveness.” T rough its Metal Casting Center, UNI hopes to build a portfolio of successful additive manufacturing case studies in sand to help develop the market for potential users or providers of the technology. “We think improving the acces-
sibility and availability of the technol- ogy to companies in the Midwest is a hurdle,” T iel said. “We want to show companies—not just foundries, but also equipment manufacturers and entrepre- neurs—that this is a viable process and has fl exibility in design not available in conventional coremaking.”
40 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Nov/Dec 2013 End-users of large castings, such as this gear part, can obtain replacement parts quickly without replacing damaged or lost tooling.
Photo courtesy ExOne.
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