Rapid Sand Casting Production

Sand casting has been used in the automotive industry and other manufacturing sectors to produce metal components, but the process has been unchanged mainly due to a lack of investment since casting Foundries do not want to risk changing their conventional operations.

Recently, 3D printing systems have assisted the Sand Casting industry by building sand cores, but all that the OEM's offer at this time are bulky and expensive systems that require a lot of manual post-processing. The main motivation of the project is to introduce a much needed, significant step change in the casting industry, to manufacture geometries, previously non achievable in series production volumes, at a cost that matches today's restrictive processes. The new opportunities show major component weight savings using less material and post processing.

The technical challenge of the project is to develop a system which can achieve rapid cycle times whilst remaining cost competitive for production volumes. The UK Foundry industry has gradually diminished as a result of overseas competition with lower labor and operating costs, often to the detriment of casting quality. The UK Foundry industry has therefore adapted, over the years, to specialise using their casting expertise and knowledge in higher complexity and high quality/value components.

The project will provide a low cost automated rapid manufacturing capability capable of competitively producing from one off prototype to mass production cast components with minimal lead times.