The unbreakable box

Project summary

High temperatures, rapidly expanding toxic gases and extremely strong material properties – a perfect fit for Additive Casting®  

Sheffield based Addition Additive Manufacturing (Addition) is an industrial 3D printing consultancy, specializing in the development and production of parts with additive manufacturing technology. The company works with a plethora of manufacturing businesses across the UK, in the pursuit of simplifying supply chains, reducing waste and producing more complex parts by transitioning production to additive manufacturing methods. 

In summer 2020, Addition was tasked with the design and manufacture of an enclosure developed to contain and analyze the resultant gases from a series of extremely aggressive chemical reactions. The environment within the enclosure was unknown but likely to be very high temperature with rapidly expanding toxic gases and therefore, material strength and accurate dimensions were of the highest priority for the team to ensure the safety of the equipment and effective monitoring of the reaction. 

The client required only a small quantity of these test boxes and at first, the team at Addition attempted to produce the part with a metal binder-jetting process. However, the material properties were not good enough and the part lacked strength, accuracy and integrity. Tooling the part was not an option either as the required quantities were in the single digits. So Tom Fripp, Director at Addition, contacted Enable to see if it might be possible to produce the part in the required properties with Enable’s Additive Casting process. 

‘This part was a classic case of a ‘misfit’ for manufacturing. Neither direct printing nor traditional manufacturing did the job so in the end, we needed to find a hybrid process that allowed us to produce a small quantity of a reasonably complex part whilst fulfilling extremely high material standards.’ Says Tom Fripp at Addition. 

Tasked with the production of the parts, Enable started on the manufacture of the pattern that would later be used to cast the final part. The pattern was produced in a binder-jetting process, during which a binder is printed on a bed of polymer and bonds the polymer to create the casting pattern. Once the pattern was printed, it was coated in a ceramic shell and then investment cast in Stainless Steel 316. 

Enable delivered the final parts within 4 weeks, well within the customers’ expectations. The part met all the requirements for strength and safety and was entirely produced in the EU, keeping the parts carbon footprint low, as opposed to parts arriving from the Far East. 

‘We are really happy with the result and the service level we received from the Enable team. This was the first time we have employed the Additive Casting process, and, in this case, we could not have made this part any other way.’ 

Tom Fripp, Director at Additive

‘This project was a great example for the application of Additive Casting and how some parts require a hybrid process to be successfully manufactured to the desired specifications. Every part is different and there is no universal manufacturing method that fits all. But when it comes to complex, large, strong parts in low to medium volume productions, Additive Casting will most likely be the most economic manufacturing method’. Phil Kilburn, Sales Director at Enable. 

About Enable  

Founded in 2019, Enable is a UK based business that specialises in additive manufacturing, including the manufacturing of moulds for metal casting to produce high quality metal production parts without the limitations of traditional tooling. This method is called Additive Casting and bridges the gap between direct 3D metal printing and traditional metal casting. For more information visit www.enable.parts.     

For more information, please contact our office:  

+44 (0) 3333 05 09 04  

office@enable.parts