How does 3D Sand Printing Work?

[rimcanyon]

I am familiar with 3D printing used to generate patterns for sand casting, but not the process of 3D sand printing, where the machine generates the sand mold directly. How does that work?

 

[nihilistic]

Did you even try typing "3d sand printing" into google?

Sand 3D Printer – What Exactly Is It?

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[trevj]

I am familiar with 3D printing used to generate patterns for sand casting, but not the process of 3D sand printing, where the machine generates the sand mold directly. How does that work?

While I sorta agree with the other post, the printer sprays out adhesive, the sand is raked over that, the head raises or the bed lowers, and the process repeats at whatever depth of layer the software has been told.

About that simple, and if you really wanted, you could do it using cardboard templates, and spray cans of the adhesive, and get results of a sort.

I would pretty much bet that there are dissolving adhesives available to make the cores come out easily, after the casting.

 

[Peter from Holland]

Saw it at a foundry once that they shaped blocks of sand by milling

Peter

 

[rimcanyon]

Trevj, thanks for your reply.

Yes I googled it, and found lots of places that offer it and some discussions of what it is capable of, but Nothing about how it works. I was envisioning a more generative process than raking the sand over the adhesive. My thoughts were either the 3d machine generates the grains and the binder, or it generates the binder in a sand suspension.

 

[David Ferguson]

i have a friend that has used that capability to re-make copies of old race car castings. They come out so good, that machining is often minimal.

VINTAGE CASTINGS

Stohr Design can help provide one-off castings for antique cars as well as new racing cars.

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