Trends in Metal Casting

[GreenTwin]

I read a US-based casting journal, to keep up with the modern trends in the casting industry.

3D printed molds and cores continue to be a popular trend.

One item that I just found out about is an outboard motor being manufactured by apparently Mercury, which is a V-12, 7.6 liter, 600 hp.
Cast in AA 356.0 with a T6 temper.
Photo in the article shows a fishing boat with four of these motors hung off the back.
Reverse-tilt pour.
$77,000.00 MSR per engine.
Two-speed gearcase.
Fixted transom mount, with the lower gearcase being the only thing that rotates.

So these new outboard motors give an entirely new twist to the phrase "hey, lets go fishing".
It is more like "lets go fishing at 200 mph".

Not my photos.

So it begs the question, which one of you will build the first scale model of this engine ?

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[timo_gross]

Soo many questions
Is the guy in the dark shorts standing in the water? (smells like photo montage)
What are they fishing?
Are you sure that is not called "hookup" boat?
Fuel is cheap in USA, in Europe fishing boats look like this. And they are struggling to pay for the fuel.

Is the cylinder head still the cylinder head? even if they tilt everything into this weird position?

What does MSR mean?

Greetings Timo

 

[Jasonb]

Given the amount of motor below water level I would say the guy in the shorts is trying to free the boat as it must have run aground.

Have a look on youtube for some of these boats, 6 or 7 motors on some of them. recreational fishing or posing.

 

[GreenTwin]

MSR = manufacturer's suggested retail price

These boats and motors are not for mere mortals like myself, but the bright side is that the casting and design work is being done in the US, which hopefully will trickle down to the rest of us.

During college, I worked part time at a custom van shop, which produced high-end highly modified vans for the well-to-do folks.
We would install all sorts of windows, skylights, luxurious seats and interior, refrigerators, kitchens, beer dispensers, toilets; basically anything the buyer could dream of and afford.
I could never afford one of these vans, but I made good money through college doing this hot and dirty work (no airconditioning in the shop, and 110 F in the shade during the summer here).
I learned many many skills, and was glad to be given the opportunity to work at a good wage.
I also was able to observe how a successful business was operated and more importantly marketed, and I still use those skills today.

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[GreenTwin]

There is a song out there somewhere, about living in "status symbol land", and that is a lot of what these high-end boats are about; proving that you have more cash than the next millionaire/billionaire.

I see it as akin to the moon project.
Did we need to go to the moon? Definitely not.
Did a lot of usable technology come out of all the moon R&D. Definitely.

And the high-end yacht business employs a lot of folks, directly and indirectly.
The flip side is we all paddle around in dugout canoes, which I would be ok with, but not much in the way of job opportunities there.

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[GreenTwin]

Is the cylinder head still the cylinder head? even if they tilt everything into this weird position?

Don't let the trendy/stylish cowling fool you.
It is a typical V-12 style engine, much like a Merlin, Allison, etc, but stood up vertically, with a 2-speed transmission under it.
It is supposedly a tall engine (I think 72" tall), which makes no difference really on a boat that size.

The cowling is just window dressing, so you feel good about your $77,000.00 each purchase.

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[Jasonb]

Not all Mercury engines are made in the US they make in China too.

 

[GreenTwin]

Trends in commercial metal casting in today's "Modern Casting" magazine include an article about 3D Sand Printing (3DSP).

This technology has improved over the years, and is particularly interesting to me because it is a method that allows a mold/casting to be created without any tooling (ie: no permanent patterns and the machinery that holds them in place, no flasks, no molding machines, no coreboxes, no permanent mold making equipment such as CNC routers, etc.).
Tooling has always been the most sigificant part of assembling the permanent molds, etc. to mass produce castings.
And the trend has been that once a very distant entity has created (for free, so to speak) the tooling for your part, and begins to make your castings, then the same item shows up somewhere in the world for sale at 1/2 the cost, and you have little recourse over your loss of intellectual material. This is happening a lot, and causing many companies to re-shore their castings to prevent this from occurring.

With 3DSP, the entire process can remain in the country that you reside in, and you maintain control over your material/information.
More significantly, you can make rapid-prototype changes easily without retooling, and make changes at any time during production also without retooling.

Cores can be 3D printed inside the mold as the mold is 3D printed.

3DSP may not be ready for large scale mass production, but that is what they said about the early laser printers, and they have taken over a lot of the standard printing production.

If this technology filters down the hobby level, even as a 3D mold printing service, it could be significant, in my opinion.
I see this technology being useful for parts that would be too large or expensive for the 3D metal-printing services.

3DSP molds can produce near-net-shaped castings that can reduce and sometimes even eliminate machining, which is a huge cost savings.
If permanent molds will not be made, then the 3DSP molds can be printed with no draft angle.

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[Jasonb]

But costs would soon be higher if more than one or two were required as printing each time will cost far more then using a one off pattern so not the answer to everything. A lot will depend on the specific part, something like that outboard gearbox with all the external webs would be better suited than more simple parts that can easily be pulled from a sand mould.

You may not need some of the traditional tooling but the cost of a sand printer will not be cheap either.

Casting costs may well still be cheaper if a file is sent to some other part in th eworld, sand printed and part cast and shipped back maybe even machined before sending back. Just like the 3D metal printing is done many miles away so could any sand printing and casting as I doubt the sand would travel too well

As for copies just about anything can be 3D scanned and copied these days so nothing is really safe.

 

[GreenTwin]

This photo from the ExOne website shows what appears to be a 3D printed mini-engine block.
Perhaps a prototype for a large scale engine, or a test of 3D printed sand patterns; I am not really sure.

Some rather dramatic possibilites for the hobby market, should this technology become mainstream for small engine castings.

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[GreenTwin]

But costs would soon be higher if more than one or two were required a sprinting each time will cost far more then using a one off pattern so not the answer to everything

You may not need some of the traditional tooling but the cost of a sand printer will not be cheap either.

Casting costs may well still be cheaper if a file is sent to some other part in th eworld, sand printed and part cast and shipped back maybe even machined before sending back. Just like the 3D metal printing is done many miles away so could any sand printing and casting as I doubt the sand would travel too well

As for copies just about anything can be 3D scanned and copied these days so nothing is really safe.

The article talks about time-to-market, and how in the auto and tractor industry, a new product may take 5 years to work itself to market.
Rapid prototyping can reduce this time by years.

And it mentions that with rapid prototyping, the design of a part can be tested and optimized a number of times before permanent mold making ever begins.

And supply chain issues have become extremely critical.
Many manufacturer's are reshoring their castings to the US just so they don't get caught up in the supply chain issues that keep happening worldwide.
You can't sell a product that you can't get, no matter how inexpensive that product is.

For replacement of castings for very large critical machines, such as those that dig ore, or transport ore, downtime is extremely expensive, and so getting a part cast and machined in under a week is much less expensive than waiting for months for a part to be made through normal channels.

For large scale mass production, the 3D printed molds would not be the best application (in my opinion, yet).

I think the money is in the specialty castings though, and they would lend themselves to 3D printed molds.

I would consider purchasing 3D printed sand molds for model engines.
It could be worth the money to not have to make all those tiny intricate patterns and coreboxes, such as for a V-8 engine.
Model engine castings tend to be limited production runs anyway, and so perhaps suited to 3D sand printing.

Patent laws could be enforced for copycat poducts that someone tries to introduce to the US.
Once you transport your technological database to some distant land, not only do you lose control of your product, you also give what may represent years of R&D to someone who did nothing for that information.

Nobody saves money in the long run if their technology gets transferred to some distant land, and then their manufacturing capabilities collapse (like is happening in the US). The low prices mass-produced products from afar are short term, since the real cost is shipping the technology and jobs somewhere else, and a country will not thrive without an inhouse technological base that manufactures things.

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