Project Brief
Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Technology (October 1997)Development of the 3D Printing Process for Direct Fabrication of Automotive Tooling for Lost Foam CastingsDevelop computer systems and three-dimensional printing process technologies to automatically generate tasking to manufacture Styrofoam patterns of complex engine components from a parts-design database, enabling lower cost production of aluminum engine components with complex shapes.The resulting technologies also could be adapted for the manufacture of turbine components and in the creation of new materials such as metal "foams." Sponsor: Extrude Hone Corporation8075 Pennsylvania AvenueIrwin, PA 15642
The automobile industry increasingly uses aluminum engine components to reduce weight and energy consumption in its vehicles while controlling manufacturing costs. But the mechanics of making and assembling cores and molds for conventional casting has limited the designs that could be cast. The process of lost foam casting, in which a Styrofoam pattern immersed in dry sand becomes a metal casting as hot metal vaporizes the plastic foam, allows automotive companies to cast cylinder heads with the complex geometries required for modern internal combustion engines. Although this technique produces cost reductions of 20 to 60 percent, the cost of producing the tools to create the foam patterns is high and changes in tooling take substantial amounts of time. Extrude Hone and the General Motors Powertrain Group plan to develop three-dimensional printing process (3DP)Tm techniques to produce the tooling that is used to make the Styrofoam patterns. The 3DP process will allow prototypes to be built up automatically, layer by layer, from a mathematical model. In addition to process development, the companies will develop the computer systems required to go directly from a parts design database to production of the tooling. Finally, a prototype machine for tooling production will be installed at a General Motors site to simulate its actual use. The partner companies expect savings from the earlier introduction of new products, the reuse of sand in the casting process, and increased accuracy of casting. The techniques developed for powertrain components also could be adapted for the manufacture of turbine components and in the creation of new materials such as metal "foams."
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