Rapid Sand Casting Production

砂型铸造已用于汽车工业和其他制造部门生产金属部件，但由于铸造铸造厂不希望冒险改变其传统操作，因此缺乏投资，因此该工艺一直没有改变。最近，3D打印系统通过构建砂芯来帮助砂铸造行业，但目前所有OEM提供的都是笨重且昂贵的系统，需要大量的人工后处理。该项目的主要动机是在铸造行业引入一个急需的、重要的步骤变化，以符合当今限制性工艺的成本来制造以前无法批量生产的几何形状。新的机会显示了主要的组件重量节省使用更少的材料和后处理。该项目的技术挑战是开发一种能够实现快速循环时间的系统，同时在产量方面保持成本竞争力。英国铸造业已经逐渐减少，由于海外竞争与较低的劳动力和运营成本，往往损害铸造质量。因此，多年来，英国铸造行业已经适应，专门利用他们的铸造专业知识和知识，在更高的复杂性和高质量/价值的组件。该项目将提供低成本的自动化快速制造能力，能够在最短的交货时间内具有竞争力地从一次性原型生产到批量生产铸造部件。

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.