3D printed Sand cores & molds

The Global Leader in
3D Sand Printing Innovation

The commercialization of 3D sand printing is here, and it has revolutionized the foundry industry. At Humtown, we use this additive manufacturing technology to supply foundries with 3D printed sand cores and molds that are more complex & intricate than ever before, in less time than ever before. We use this award-winning binder jetting technology to partner with foundries and OEMs to produce complex, strong, no-assembly 3D printed sand cores and molds for the highest quality castings.

Tour Humtown Additive by clicking the interactive video below!

Ultimate Design
Freedom

To print parts, all we need is a print ready file of the design. If you can design it, we can print it. This means if you need to make a design change, it’s only an email away.

No Tooling

Required

Tooling costs money, adds lead time, limits revisions, gets lost and wears out. But we can 3D print without any tooling, saving a foundry major time and money.

No Assembly

Required

When a project requires several cores to be produced and then assembled, we can consolidate all of the cores and print one core that eliminates labor hours & mistakes.

Short Lead
Time

With the elimination of tooling creation, and with our full fleet of 3D sand printing machines working 24/7, we can turn lead times from weeks or months into days.

3D Printing Starts with the Right Application

Depending on factors such as part design, deadline and tooling availability, there are use cases for both our conventional manufacturing and our 3D printing. Below are eight different scenarios or factors where our 3D printing makes the most sense than our conventional manufacturing:

High Complexity
Smaller Sized Cores
High Tooling Cost
Assembly Required
Tight Deadline
Obsolete/Missing Tooling
New Design
Low, Medium and High Volume

3D sand printing allows for much more complex, intricate part designs. Because 3D printing involves building up a part layer by layer, voids and intricate details in the digital design file can easily be achieved. Additionally, in conventional manufacturing, the more the complex the part is, the more expensive it is due to scrap. That is not the case with 3D sand printing, as the price only increases when more material is needed. The more complex the core or mold, the better the case for additive manufacturing.

Regardless of the level of complexity, if your cores are about the size of a clenched fist (or smaller), then it is likely more cost-efficient to 3D print them than produce them conventionally. This is due to the high scrap attached to conventionally manufacturing small cores and the volume of small cores that can fit in one ExOne 3D printer build box (approximately 5,184 cores fist-sized cores).

We can 3D print sand cores and molds without any tooling. Tooling costs money, adds lead time, limits revisions, gets lost and wears out. But we can 3D print without any tooling, saving a foundry major time and money. To print parts, all we need is a print ready digital file of the core or mold. If you can design it, we can print it. This means if you need to make a design change, it’s only an email away – no revised tooling required.

Any time a project requires several cores to be produced and then manually assembled, then 3D printing makes the most sense. If several cores are going to need to be manually assembled, we can take all of those separate cores and consolidate them into one 3D printed core. This eliminates all manual assembly, which thereby removes all gluing tolerances, increases accuracy of component placement, eliminates extensive skilled labor assembly hours, and produces a better casting with less scrap. Now that is a no brainer.

Speed is arguably the biggest advantage when it comes to 3D sand printing vs. conventional manufacturing. With the elimination of tooling creation, and with our full fleet of 3D sand printing machines working 24/7, we can turn lead times from weeks or months into days. All we need is a digital file to plug into the machine and away we go. These time savings turn into cost savings which turn into happy customers. If you are working with an expedited deadline, 3D sand printing is a no brainer.

Lost or obsolete tooling – it’s an unfortunate yet inevitable situation that every foundry and OEM has likely experienced. And we know it’s not fun. Humtown started as a pattern shop back in 1959, so we know a thing or two about obsolete / lost tooling. Never worry about losing, breaking, misplacing or replacing tooling again with Humtown Additive’s toolingless 3D sand printing. All we need is a print ready file of the design of the core or mold, and we can 3D print it without the need for any tooling.

If you are working with a new design and want to turn a great idea into a successful part, then 3D sand printing is where you should start. It’s a quick, cost-effective way to prove out a process before investing in large scale production. Avoiding cutting any tooling, combined with revisions being just an email away, means that new designs should always start in our printers.

 

We have commercialized 3D sand printing, and we’re not just talking about small-batch or low-volume production. With the most 3D sand printers under one roof in North America, Humtown is uniquely equipped to fulfill small, medium and large-scale production. We are currently printing almost one railcar full of sand a week! If you would like more information on which manufacturing process makes sense for your part production, please contact us and we would love to talk through it with you.

Working on the Technologies of Tomorrow, Today

Since receiving our first sand 3D printer back in 2014, we have continued to add new technology and more capacity to our manufacturing facility. Watch the video on the left where Mark and Brandon Lamoncha talk about the evolution of this technology, the revolution it has caused in the foundry industry, and our journey to housing the largest collection of 3D sand printers in North America.

From Prototyping
to Production

We are the first conventional core shop to commercialize 3D sand printing for the foundry industry. This additive manufacturing technology, which was originally just used to prove out prototypes, is now additionally being used by Humtown for small, medium and full-scale production. You can view some of our recent core and mold projects on the right. We are proud of the work we do here at Humtown Additive!

S-Max ExOne Machines
80 GFN Round Grain Silica
Itochu 850x Cerabeads
Carbo Ceramic Accucast ID80
Graphite Wash
Zircon Wash
Other water-based washes on request 
Coatings are water-based washes supplied by Refcotec, HA International, ASK.
Black Iron Oxide Up to 4%
KBF4 Magnesium Inhibitor

OUR CASE STUDIES

How Humtown Eliminated Assembly by Consolidating 8 Cores Into 1

HOW HUMTOWN CONVERTED CNC TOOLING INTO 3D PRINTED PARTS

HOW HUMTOWN TURNED A SCRAP JOB INTO A PRODUCTION JOB

CONVENTIONAL Sand Cores & Molds

In addition to 3D printed cores and molds, we are also global leaders in conventional manufacturing. Humtown Products, a division of Humtown that specializes in the more traditional cold-box and air-set processes, produces cores and molds in Columbiana, Ohio. Serving the foundry industry for more than 50 years, they know a thing or two about optimizing their cores and molds for the casting process.