Additive Manufacturing

NOV 2017

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING is the magazine devoted to industrial applications of 3D printing and digital layering technology. We cover the promise and the challenges of this technology for making functional tooling and end-use production parts.

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AM / AM Answers Its Casting Call additivemanufacturing.media 53 A mechanical whir within a small warehouse adjacent to HCC is the cast- ing call of a Viridis3D RAM123 robotic sand printer—a "game changer," as HCC President Tony Badamo calls it. Located just a stone's throw from the foundry furnaces, the Viridis machine prints molds and cores straight from a digital model into a bed of sand, one sweeping layer at a time, without any need for a pattern or core box, the tooling that has long been typical of industrial casting. AM is pushing engineers who make cast components to consider design op- timization, as well driving foundries to rethink solutions to castings previously created with conventional tooling. A Perfect Dilemma It was only a few years ago when Hazleton began exploring additive technologies to complement its existing toolmaking capabilities, and started subcontracting with outside printing bureaus to manufacture molds and cores from customers' digital models. But when problems arose with any given outsourced product—excessive slag, shrink defects from the alloys reacting with the environment, or mold design flaws such as improper placement of the risers—the variables were numerous enough that pinpointing a root cause was difficult at best. Was there a quality issue with the sand? Was the binder distribution from the print head consis- tent? Was there a defect resulting from the geometry of the mold itself? From the customer's perspective, of course, the onus to get it right falls squarely on the foundry. "We ran into problems where there was a lot of finger pointing," Badamo says. "When that happened to us the first time, we knew that if we were going to be a player in this market and in this environment, LEFT: A close up of the binder side of the print head on the Viridis3D RAM123. 3D-printed mold sections pro- duced at HCC. Modular design allows the company to vary the number of castings produced in each mold by adding or sub- tracting sections according to order requirements. Badamo (right) shows an example of a drag, the bottom section of a casting mold.

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