Case Studies
Creating A Replica of Pio Fedi’s Liberty of Poetry Statue
Problem: Kent State University was commissioned to create a replica of Pio Fedi’s Liberty of Poetry statue as a featured piece for the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration exhibit “Sisters in Liberty: From Florence, Italy to New York”. The original statue, standing over 12 feet tall, resides at the Opera de Santa Croce in Florence, and served as the inspiration for the creation of our country’s Statue of Liberty.
Solution: The team at Kent State sought out the expertise of Youngstown based start-up Freshmade3D and their proprietary AMClad® 3D Printing Process to develop an 80% scale model of the statue. Freshmade3D partnered with Humtown Products to 3D print the molds and castings for this intricate project.
Freshmade3D AMClad® production and development relies heavily on the partnership with Humtown stating that Humtown’s vision has helped see the true potential for the product.
Recently Freshmade 3D entered into a lease with the Columbiana County Port Authority in the same building as Humtown Products. The goal is to develop a production model that’s not only scalable, but has the potential to be licensed to companies that could benefit from AMClad products. Being located in the same building as Humtown reduces the risk of transporting fragile sand parts and helps fast track the development process.
After working on many AMClad projects with Humtown, Freshmade 3D has developed innovative ways to increase the success rate of harvesting complex parts out of the build box as well as ways to reduce the risk of parts breaking during transport. Humtown can apply these design methods to the molds and cores they currently produce.
Click here to see how it was done
Core Conversion—from Conventional to 3D Printed!
Problem: A Humtown customer had CNC-cut tooling produced several years ago. Due to the very small 1/8” diameter of the core, the tooling had worn out. To get the core box to fill, Humtown had to increase the blow pressure of the machine; and this wears out tooling faster than usual. Once a core box starts to wear out, either clay or gasket material is used to keep pressure in the cavity. The down side: loose sand tends to stick in the material, further damaging the tool.
Solution: Humtown proposed creating a 3D CAD model of the core in order to 3D print the cores in a box that could be shipped to the foundry. To date, we’ve produced over 10,000 cores using this 3D Solution and the customer has actually had improved casting yield, lower scrap in shipping, and found an added bonus in that the 3D printed cores clean out better from the casting!
Call Humtown today at 330.482.5555 to have your own success story!
Core Consolidation, Assembly Free!
Problem: A Humtown client had a project that required eight cores to be assembled. Assembly would require jigs, fixtures and an added person to glue the components together. The glue and fit of the cores are also an added area of concern in any casting process for variablity and scrap. When assembly is required on a project, additional scrap must be figured into the job to cover human error.
Solution: Humtown proposed creating 3D printed cores to eliminate the assembly. The total cost would be less per core even when compared to conventional core make and assembly. This would also completely eliminate the initial capital expenditure on CNC-cut core boxes to create the eight individual cores, jigs, and fixtures required to assemble in production.
Call Humtown at 330.482.5555 to see how you can eliminate tooling costs and improve your yield by consolidating core assemblies in your plant!
