3D Printed Sand Molds with Dynamic Gating

Abstract The scope of the work presented here is to describe methodology that takes advantage of the capabilities provided by 3D Sand Printing (3DSP) to reduce the time and effort required in the post-processing of castings, primarily in gating elimination. While efforts have been made to refine traditional mold design with 3DSP, embedding moving parts in molds has not been explored, a concept that could allow for dynamic gating systems that redirect molten metal out of the gating system after casting cavities have been appropriately filled and solidified. Moreover, the design freedom of 3DSP can allow for casting configurations with higher cavity density that produce far greater part yields per mold. This study describes the experimental exploration of a novel 3DSP mold design that includes a valve mechanism at the bottom of a riser which drains the gating system after part solidification. This eliminates the gating structures that are typically created during casting which usually require manual labor to remove after solidification. Consequently, post-processing time and manufacturing cost can be reduced and quality can be improved.