Desktop Metal is reaffirming its commitment to the global foundry market with sand 3D printing systems from its ExOne brand.
A job box of the ExOne Exerial sand printing system used for serial production at BMW’s Landshut plant. The job box features complex sand cores 3D printed with inorganic binder, which are used to metal cast water jackets for various BMW combustion engines. (Image courtesy and copyright, BMW Group)
BOSTON—Desktop Metal, Inc., an innovator of additive manufacturing technologies for mass production, has reaffirmed its commitment to the global foundry market through its ExOne brand, the company said in a release.
ExOne provides digital casting tools for foundries with its binder jet 3D printing technology. The company was scheduled to showcase the brand’s portfolio at the 2023 GIFA International Foundry Trade Fair in Germany, held this summer at Messe Dusseldorf.
“We are as committed as ever to our digital casting customers, such as BMW Group, Kimura Group, Grede, Humtown, and others, who are some of our highest production customers worldwide,” said Desktop Metal Founder and CEO Ric Fulop, in a release from Desktop Metal. “Foundries have laid the blueprint for how binder jet 3D printing will scale beyond castings with direct metal printing, and we’re eager to deepen our relationship with the world’s metal casters as we improve accessibility of our systems downstream to every foundry.”
A sand core assessment after binder jet 3D printing on ExOne additive manufacturing equipment at BMW’s Landshut plant. (Image courtesy and copyright, BMW Group)
According to Desktop Metal, more than half of all ExOne systems installed globally are located at customer sites that have two or more sand printers. A growing number of these customers are reported to be Super Fleet customers with three or more systems running full production volumes, usually around the clock.
The company said the average size of an ExOne Super Fleet today is five systems. The largest fleet—13 machines—is at Humtown Products in Ohio. The S-Max family of sand 3D printing systems is the workhorse of these Super Fleets, making up more than 80 percent of all Super Fleets worldwide, Desktop Metal said in the release.
The German car manufacturer BMW Group also is a Super Fleet customer, with a full fleet of ExOne Exerial sand 3D printing systems. In the BMW Group light metal foundry at its Landshut plant, the systems are said to produce cores for water jackets with inorganic binders that are used in various combustion engines.
ExOne’s S-Max Pro is the top-of-the-line model in the S-Max series of sand 3D printers. It offers new reliability enhancements, such as a reinforced mixing chamber that further improves uptime and process stability. It also features a wide range of binders, including inorganic and now BPA-free furan binders, according to the release.
The S-Max Flex robotic sand 3D printer, first announced in 2022, is expected to retail below $500,000. The upgraded system is slated for global availability by year’s end, according to Desktop Metal. Among its enhancements, the new S-Max Flex is reported to be the first ExOne sand printing system to feature Desktop Metal Live Print machine-control software with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Its software runs on a touchscreen system.
The entry-level silica sand and furan system uses Desktop Metal’s patent-pending Single Pass Jetting™ (SPJ) technology, expected to “make sand 3D printing accessible to foundries worldwide,” the company said.