Humtown Products is a specialty sand core and mold supplier to foundries, but that market segment is changing, and the one-time pattern shop is playing an important role in those developments. Last week, Humtown subsidiary Agile Casting Solutions in Leetonia, OH, cut the ribbon on its new ExOne S-Max printer, one of the largest in the U.S. producing sand molds, cores, and patterns.
Agile Casting Solutions is a 2,800-sq.ft. operation that houses the S-Max, and developed by Humtown together with Youngstown State University and America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, with development funding from the Ohio Third Frontier, a technology-focused economic development initiative.
The S-Max has a 1,800x1,000x700-mm build area (LxWxH), with a build speed of 2.12-3.00 ft3/hour.
Agile Casting Solutions’ estimated $1-million ExOne machine is the only 3D sand printer in Ohio, and like other such systems (e.g., the printer in place at the University of Northern Iowa’s Metal Casting Center) it will be used to advance the development of complex molds and cores.
Such systems use bonded sand as a printing medium to form complex shapes according to patterns derived from CAD programs. Agile Casting Solutions will work with foundry customers, as well as other manufacturers needing 3D structures formed in sand.
In addition, the new workspace will offer classroom and laboratory opportunities for engineering students at YSU and other universities and community colleges in Northeastern Ohio working on designs and production techniques.
“Ahead of technology comes three-dimensional thinking and leadership,” according to Humtown Products president and CEO Mark Lamoncha. “That’s the kind of thinking and leadership we are seeing with YSU and America Makes. As a team, including the expertise of YSU faculty and students, we look forward to refining this new technology, making the metalcasting industry even stronger.”