Advancing 3D Printing for Metalcasting

The number of companies both producing printed sand molds and cores and the companies using the technology has quadrupled in the last three years. 

The technology has allowed improvements in the casting process in several ways. The cost of hard tooling is eliminated. Conventional castings are produced by forming sand around a positive shape and bonding in place through inorganic minerals or chemical polymers. For example, the tooling for the positive shape is very costly compared to the value of the individual castings and must be amortized over the life of the casting design.