Prototyping and Manufacturing of Magnetic Gearbox Components using Innovations in Castings
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- United States Navy, Washington, D.C. (United States)
- Eck Industries, Manitowoc, WI (United States)
- Emrgy, Inc., Atlanta, GA (United States)
This project combines additive manufacturing with the broadly deployed practice of metal casting. Combining these methods will unlock new design possibilities while reducing the economic burden of early stage prototyping while leveraging well established high throughput sand casting. Two main approaches are evaluated: direct printing of single use sand molds and printing of reusable impression patterns used to create sand molds. Reusable impression molds typically can be used to produce hundreds to several thousands of casting thereby amplifying the function of the 3D printed replica mold. Emrgy’s newly developed and tested proprietary magnetic gearbox system for low head hydroelectricity generation was the subject part of this study. Leveraging ORNL’s additive manufacturing capability and expertise, a pattern impression was produced and used to create multiple sand molds of the gearbox during phase 1. Even before considering the cost savings possible once rigging and pattern mounting is optimized through repetition and improved design, final part costs using this combined method resulted in an 80% cost reduction over EMRGY’s previous method of subtractive manufacturing for gearbox production.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1474589
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/TM-2018/907; CRADA/NFE-17-06532
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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