If you aren’t looking ahead, you’re already behind - Waupaca Foundry
Looking ahead with 3D printing
With a history dating back to 1871, Waupaca Foundry has established a legacy of producing high quality gray iron, ductile iron, and austempered ductile iron castings. Today, the company has an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons and employs more than 4,000 at plants located throughout the United States. To continue growing for the next 150 years, Waupaca Foundry keeps innovation as a top priority because, “if you aren’tlooking ahead, you’re already behind.”
And to stay ahead of the curve, Waupaca Foundry has used additive manufacturing to deliver more value to its customers, solving quality issues and eliminating supply chain instability in iron casting manufacturing. First utilizing the technology through services offered at leading pattern shops, Waupaca installed its first sand 3D printer at Plant 1 in 2022. With an in-house S-Max Pro from the leader in sand 3D printing solutions, ExOne, the foundry is able to automate the core production process and create complex core assemblies as single pieces.
Cultivating new opportunities
Adding 3D printing to Waupaca’s capabilities allows the team to provide flexible, local solutions to its customers’ unique challenges. The foundry is currently building its expertise with binder jetting to aid in design development and program launch through rapid prototyping work.
“Customers are able to do R&D on products without needing to cut a new tool,” said Nick Bonikowske, Sample and Process Analyst at Waupaca Foundry. With 3D printing, the team is able to produce a proof-of-concept casting with digitally produced molds and cores without the cost of tooling, or the 6-10 week turnaround time to get it. Customers can thus mitigate risks by testing and verifying part performance before a casting goes into production. “The changes that we need to make to a design we can do on the fly and provide a new sample within a day instead of weeks,” Bonikowske emphasized.
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