Capabilities
We Realize Optimized Designs with Both Additive Manufacturing and High-Quality Casting Technologies
Kimura Foundry Group is the global leader in the use of sand 3D printing technology with a successful history as cast iron foundry and the world’s largest numbers of sand 3D printers. We deliver the highest quality casting products with ultra-fast lead times to support customers who need complex castings within limited time frame.
3D printing technology many benefits for casting production including:
- Highly complex shapes
- Wall thickness as low as 4.0mm
- Dimensional accuracy ±0.5mm
- Easily integrated internal cooling structures
- Very smooth surface
Advantages of Our Process
Ultra Fast Delivery
Embracing the digital metalcasting workflow, Kimura has significantly reduced lead times for customer jobs. Typically, conventional manufacturing processes take about 40 days to produce a finished cast prototype, with the bulk of that time needed to build a pattern. Using additive manufacturing technology, we are able to produce sand molds and cores directly from digital CAD data that can go from print file to cast product within 5 days.
The four furnaces at our facility, ranging from 300 lbs. up to a 2,000 lbs. electric induction furnace, allow us to do select melts for low-volume jobs without having to wait to fill a large furnace while also supporting poured castings as large as 1,700 lbs. (771 kg). Heat treatment capabilities located directly at our foundry also ensures our customers receive quick turnarounds.
Delivering prototypes in less than one week is a gamechanger for metalcasting, opening the door to quicker product development and new freedom of design. By concentrating our sandcasting capabilities under one roof, we can iterate designs quickly based on casting results and can communicate with customers and provide feedback to support their needs for unique runner and riser designs or other difficult requirements. Using MAGMASOFT® solidification modeling, our engineering team tailors vents and risers to the part while running flow and solidification analysis to confirm the pour capabilities in advance to ensure quality castings. What’s more, with our ExOne 3D printers we can do undercuts and cores that we would not be able to create with traditional foundry practices
Pattern-less Production
Pattern making is always time consuming and generates significant additional tooling costs. When a production run is of a limited quantity or a functional prototype is needed for testing, the best option is to skip pattern making altogether, saving time and money. Avoid pattern wear and damage or lost patterns by storing and producing your design in 3D data. We keep your design in our secure data storage to create molds and cores on-demand and deliver castings in 5 days.
The digital workflow of binder jet 3D printing is ideal for rapid prototyping with fast design iterations, projects with customized or varying components, or replacement parts that no longer have a pattern. Without expensive tooling investments you’re free to update part designs to deliver higher performance or reduce expensive idle time caused by the unavailability of spare parts.
Unleash your design innovations and increase customer satisfaction – we support the engineer who never compromises on design in their work to realize a better future.
Ultra Fast Delivery
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Complex Geometry of Products
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Pattern-less Production
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Troubleshooting
Kimura Foundry America is always trying to solve the most challenging castings. Our long foundry history and simulation capabilities enable us to identify focus on the problem and solve typical casting quality issues like porosity, gas defects, shrinkage, blowholes, etc.
Utilizing simulation software we are able to optimize features and create an efficient design based on our expert criteria. By running multiple simulations of every casting before finalizing a rigging design we can guarantee a defect-free parts every time.
3D Printed Sand Mold
Pump Casing
Material: 65-45-12 / EN-GJS-450-10
Size: 16x12x8 inch / 400x300x200mm
Weight: 55lbs / 25kg
Lead-time: 5 days
Service part
Hydraulic Control Valve
Material: 80-55-06 / EN-GJS-500-7
Size: 8x8x5inch 200x200x120mm
Weight: 26lbs / 12kg
Lead-time: 5 days
Prototype part
Impeller
Material: CF8M / 1.4408 (steel)
Size: 11x11x7inch / 280x280x170mm
Weight: 33lbs / 15kg
Lead-time: 5 days
Service part
Engine Block
Material:350 / EN-GJV-350
Size:16x12x8inch / 400x300x200mm
Weight:77lbs / 35kg
Lead-time:5 days
Prototype
Material
Available Materials
Kimura Foundry America produces castings with various materials and grades.
We can melt most of iron and steel grade per particular specification through material testing by spectrometer.
To ensure we meet the needs of a variety of customers, Kimura pours gray and ductile iron as well as producing heat-resistant Ni-resistant castings, stainless steel castings, and compact graphite iron.
While silica sand is the most common foundry sand material because of its low cost, Kimura works exclusively with its patented ceramic sand to create the highest quality castings. With a phase transition around 1058°F (570°C), the large thermal expansion of silica sand can lead to a network of cracks in the mold that fill with metal to form veins and burrs on the surface of a casting, especially with steel and iron pours. Because of the high-quality and high-temperature capabilities of the ceramic media used in all of Kimura’s prints, anti-veining additives are not required.
Additionally, we offer two binder options to tailor castings to our customers’ requirements. Furan binder requires no post-printing treatment and easy post-casting disassembly while phenolic binder offers higher strength at normal temperatures and easier sand cleaning ideal for complex structures.
Flake Graphite Cast Iron (Grey Iron)
Stainless Cast Steel
Spheroidal Graphite Cast Iron (Ductile Iron)
Heat Resistant Cast Steel
Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI)
Ni-resist Cast Iron
Available materials
Flake Graphite Cast Iron (Grey Iron)
Stainless Cast Steel
Spheroidal Graphite Cast Iron (Ductile Iron)
Heat Resistant Cast Steel
Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI)
Ni-resist Cast Iron
<Our typical process from quotation to shipment>
Case studies
Agricultural Machinery Component with Production Quality Challenge
Solution: End-to-End support from Kimura solves quality issue to deliver defect-free castings with a very short delivery lead time.
A manufacturer of agricultural machinery components faced a serious quality problem on one of their production castings. Despite attempts to improve the pouring process, their foundry was unable to eliminate the quality issue, so they reached out to Kimura Foundry America. After receiving a quote to deliver with 1.5 weeks lead time the customer ordered 20 pieces from Kimura, allowing their foundry more time to focus on production improvements. Kimura ran MAGMA simulation with feedback from the customer to create an optimized casting plan to begin pours the next day. The first part was confirmed defect-free through CT scanning and 20 pieces were delivered to the customer in 5 business days.
Key Points:
By sharing the precise defect information, the customer enabled us to focus on targeting the quality issue and use simulation software to identify the best casting plan within a couple of hours.
Multiple Automotive Prototype Designs Needed to Test Functionality
Solution: Flexible production allows Kimura to simultaneously print various designs without the long lead times or costs of traditional tooling.
A leading automotive component manufacturer wanted to run functional testing on various prototype designs before finalizing their production design. Two pieces of each design were ordered and we ran simulation on each design to confirm each casting plan. The large build capacity of our sand 3D printed enabled us to print the molds and cores of all three designs simultaneously in under 24 hours. All three prototype iterations were cast and delivered together two weeks after the purchase order was received so the customer could proceed with their functional testing to identify the optimal design.
Key points:
The flexibility of sand 3D printing allows us to build multiple different mold and core designs at the same time, making it ideal for the customer to test several design options in a limited time frame.