“We’re saving time on the post-print finishing because the finish of the resins is good.” The accuracy of the Quickcast parts (0.025-0.05 mm) enables Vaupell to meet the exacting requirements of its aerospace customers. In comparison, a wax tool for the same part could take several months at a cost of $200,000 plus. I will be happy to deliver an update in the coming months when we have fully-tested results showing how QuickCast continues to lead in the industry.Andy Reeves, a Vaupell sales engineer for new business development, estimates that a specific 66cm diameter part pattern can be produced with QuickCast on a 3D Systems large 3D printing platform in three days for less than $15,000. While this was solved using work-arounds, this really only made the methodology applicable to prototype castings.Ī number of factors are increasing interest in using printed patterns for low- to medium-volume production including increasing demand for fast turn on casting orders, and increasing interest in 'un-moldable' geometries generated by topology optimization programs.ĭuring this research, studies were done to reduce stiffness in the pattern and have uniform stiffness in all directions to relieve the problem of shell cracking, while keeping file size, slice time and build time comparable to the existing methodology.Ĭreative new approaches to the QuickCast build were delivered by the research team, including notched walls in the structure and a new diamond-shaped build, and both look promising.Īt the time of this blog post and presentation, foundry testing has not been completed. QuickCast has never really made it into production workflows because it had some ongoing challenges with regard to cracking shells during the casting process. But now we are moving into a new era where QuickCast will become applicable in wider vertical segments.Īt the Investment Casting Institute's annual Technical Conference and Expo this week in Kansas City, Missouri, hundreds of foundry owners and employees are attending to discover new developments and technologies for investment casting.Īt the event I will be presenting the ongoing research and development currently in play for 3D Systems' QuickCast methodology. Progress to transition QuickCast from prototyping into production has been slow: it has been used extensively for prototype castings, and some bridge manufacturing, and in the last few years has evolved into extensive casting for jet engine impellers. SLA QuickCast patterns have been the leading type of additive manufactured pattern ever since, across the industry. The QuickCast ® methodology enables patterns created in SLA to be a very fast and lightweight hollow pattern build style with hexagonal internal supports, produced without the time and cost needed for tooling. Creating casting patterns using 3D printing is a technique that was pioneered by 3D Systems in the mid-1990s.
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