SBIR-STTR Award

Castings are used in 90% of all manufactured goods and in all manufacturing machinery according to the American Foundry Society (AFS). The metal casting industry is essential to the national defense of our country. Approximately 10% of all castings shipments ($35B in 2006 according to AFS) are produced soley for military applications. These include tanks, planes, ships, weapons and a myriad of other military hardware which contain thousands of cast parts. When the tooling required to produce an item is not available, it must be manufactured, extending production lead time and increasing the cost of procurement significantly. To reduce unit costs of discrete-parts manufacturing, we propose new tooling techniques combined with a brand new pattern material known as FOPAT (a FOam PATtern) designed for cast metal components. The proposed lower cost tooling materials are enabled as a result of this recent breakthrough in replacement of wax patterns, which are traditionally used in production of investment castings. The machined aluminum tooling required for injection of wax patterns is generally very expensive and time consuming to produce. The proposed technology has the potential of reducing costs to one-sixth and lead-times to one-tenth that of the current figures for the investment cast components

Under a prior Air Force SBIR program, buyCASTINGS.com and its technology division, FOPAT, developed an innovative material and process to manufacture patterns for the investment casting industry. Defying thousands of years of traditional investment casting practices, FOPAT’s new process utilizes an advanced and proprietary foam material instead of wax. While FOPAT’s product is a direct replacement for wax patterns, it is extremely cost competitive. The benefits of using FOPAT’s foam technology include: scrap reduction, raw material savings, productivity improvements, energy savings, and environmental benefits. FOPAT matches the performance of wax patterns and overcomes the disadvantages of traditional wax patterns. FOPAT promises longer storage lives of patterns, allows for much easier shipment of patterns and easier handling of patterns in the casting process, and, most importantly, allows for the production of patterns with thin and complex sections. The Air Force SBIR project is currently being extended to produce JSF engine components using the FOPAT material and process. An initial cost benefit analysis for the Air Force revealed that the total cost of investment castings used in military engines is well over $0.5B, and improving casting costs by approximately 16% which is very possible with the proposed technology given potential material cost reduction of 30% and first time yield improvements as detailed in the proposal, this could result in a potential cost savings of over $ 75M annually for just the aircraft engine manufacturers. Additional cost savings for other weapon systems and applications would be assessed as part of cost-benefit analysis task in this project. This DLA project involves using quick, low-cost tooling methods for FOPAT pattern production. This Phase II proposal has been prepared to fully exploit the technical and commercial potential demonstrated during the DLA Phase I project. While not all tasks have been completed on the Phase I project, buyCASTINGS.com has demonstrated the potential of the technology and its benefits to DLA – and is pleased to submit a Phase II proposal to address some remaining technical and commercial challenges. In particular, this proposal addresses key technical hurdles for scaling up production - and assembles a team of resources, including commercial partners, to fully commercialize and transition FOPAT technology – into the military supply chain and private industry. The proposed project meets the goals of the DLA by enhancing process efficiency, reducing cost, increasing productivity, while improving product performance and is fully supported by an experienced team and a long list of collaborators and commercial partners, including

Keywords:
Discrete-Part Manufacturing, Metal Castings, Cast Metal Components, Tooling And Pattern Materials, Investment Cast Parts, Cost Reduction, Lead-Time Re