Additive Manufacturing – MSOE Rapid Prototyping Consortium 4/17/15
Presentation: Additive Manufacturing Sand Molds and Cores Compared to a Traditional Method
Kelly Coles, chief operating officer, CA Lawton
Sheku Kamara, director, Rapid Prototyping Consortium
Due to the high cost of additive manufacturing molds and cores for individual parts, its use in the sand casting process has been limited to projects that require one to five parts or when the lead-time is critical. Last year, Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP), along with CA Lawton and MSOE, worked on a project that compared results of a casting from a traditional mold to two different additively manufactured molds and cores. The main goal of the project was to understand the advantages and limitations beyond single piece parts or lead-time and to encourage discussion for an industry and state partnership to procure one of these large format systems.
Currently, sand casting foundries only have three sources in the US for purchasing additive manufacturing molds and cores, namely ExOne (OEM), Hoosier Pattern and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI).
Kelly and Sheku will present the results from the study, analyzing each step as it relates to the manufacturing process.