EDITORIAL
Have We Seen the Paradigm Shift? W
hy does one manufacturing technology trend gain ground while another fades into the past?
Tis question presents itself when the new-
est technology becomes hot and is expected to revolutionize manufacturing. In this month’s issue, we examine the additive manu- facturing process used to make pro- duction-like sand molds and cores for metalcasting. Take a look at our feature, “Print- ing Possibilities” on p. 28, to see how 3-D print- ing is influencing metalcasting. This specific
“Additive manufacturing allows you to build
molds that can be used to produce engineered sand castings that
would be difficult to make in traditional environments.”
additive manu- facturing process has the power to produce sand castings without the need for hard tooling (essentially what is being called tool-less manufacturing) as the sand mold and/or cores are built, layer by layer, within an additive manufacturing machine. Taking this a step further, these molds and cores can be built without concern for some of the traditional sand casting design considerations like draft as there isn’t a need to draw tooling from a mold face after the sand is compacted. As a result, the ad- ditive manufacturing process allows you to build molds that can be used to produce engineered sand castings that would be difficult to make in traditional production environments. While there is a cost penalty for these molds, they have started to gain traction for short production runs and actual cast prototypes. Additive manufacturing as a whole has re-
ceived a lot of coverage recently because of great advancement in the last few years. With the U.S. government developing the America Makes: National Additive Manufacturing Innovation
Institutes to bring together industry and aca- demia to rationalize this technology into wide-scale manufacturing reality, national media, like Time magazine’s April 2013 cover story, have repeatedly shed light on the technol- ogy’s development as the new wave of labor- less manufactur- ing. Like most technologies, however, the current form is just one step in the evolution. But the pos- sibilities are exciting.
Think of the metalcasting plant of the future. Do metalcast- ers eliminate tooling or dies as you just print molds (sand, metal or ceramic) directly at whatever rate required? Taking this a step fur- ther, are molds eliminated entirely as the cast shape is formed by a magnetic field applied to levitated molten metal or semi-solid billet? Or, will 3-D printing of metal
become advanced enough to produce components with the necessary mechanical properties at a high enough production rate and low enough cost to meet demand? However the future breaks for your facility and
its production of metal castings, the focus is going to be on faster time to market at reduced costs with increased performance. Te question is if that paradigm shift in metalcasting is already on display and just needs to evolve or is it still to come?
Alfred T. Spada, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
If you have any comments about this editorial or any other item that appears in Modern Casting, email me at
aspada@afsinc.org.
December 2013 MODERN CASTING | 5
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