Stopped by the Hoosier Pattern booth today at the PRI show. Just for the fun of it I enquired on pricing to 3D print a set of cores to cast an inline six cylinder head in aluminum.
Working under the premise that a comprehensive and complete and mature electronic CAD file would be provided the cost of printing the set of cores was approximated at $1500
The core set would include: intake and exhaust cores, water jacket core, cover and bottom cores and include the gating necessary to flow the molten metal into the cored cavity. Hoosier Pattern said they would work with the foundry that was selected by the person ordering the cores to make the core set compatible with the foundry casting process.
The cost to 3D print the cores is not where the big money is spent on producing a casting, the real money and expertise is in developing the math data that allows one to do the 3D printing.
Contact info for Hoosier Pattern is below.
The other photo is the core set needed to cast a V8 cylinder block: front and rear cores, left and right water jacket cores, the body core. There would also be an upper core to make the lifter chamber and a lower core to make the oil pan rail.
For those not familiar with foundry casting processes, the cores are solid shapes that the molten metal flows around. The cores then break down and become the hollow areas inside a casting and the detailed surfaces that make up the outside of a casting.
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