Case Study: Hoosier Pattern achieves 70% reduced post-processing and business growth with ExOne binder jetting

3D Printing Quality Cores and Molds Provides Competitive Advantage

Hoosier Pattern, a 45-person pattern shop in Decatur, IN, needed a faster, more flexible way to produce foundry molds and cores without the cost and lead time of hard tooling. To meet demand across automotive, aerospace and other industries while maintaining high quality and traceability, Hoosier Pattern partnered with ExOne and adopted sand binder-jet 3D printing using ExOne S-Max® and S-Max® Pro systems (silica sand with furan binder).

Using ExOne’s binder jet technology, Hoosier Pattern now prints complex monolithic cores and molds that eliminate multi-piece assembly, enable rapid design iteration, and embed serial traceability. The switch produced measurable gains: molding rates improved 30–40%, post-processing time for a 16" impeller dropped from 156 to 49 minutes (a ~70% reduction) saving about $246,000 over 1,100 castings, castings were three times more likely to hold tolerances, and a four-machine ExOne fleet runs 24/7 to expand capacity and grow the business.

Hoosier Pattern

Keith Gerber

Owner and President