Case Study: Georg Fischer (GF Casting Solutions Leipzig) achieves 12-to-1 core consolidation and improved core quality with ExOne S-Max

Additive manufacturing of complicated sand cores for hydraulic rotary transmissions

Georg Fischer (GF Casting Solutions Leipzig GmbH), a long-established iron foundry in Leipzig, faced slow, costly and error-prone production of complex sand cores for hydraulic rotary transmissions—conventional cold box processes required up to 12 sub‑cores to be shot, assembled and fettled, and prototype turnaround could take months. To solve this, they selected ExOne and its S-Max® 3D-printer (using CHP binder and ceramic/ silica sands) to enable rapid prototyping and more complex core geometries without tooling.

ExOne’s S-Max® enabled GF Casting Solutions to print large cores (example 350 × 400 × 550 mm) in one piece—consolidating 12 shot cores into a single printed core—eliminating assembly and much fettling, improving dimensional accuracy and thin-channel quality, and reducing labor and error risk. Builds can hold up to 1,260 L (theoretical up to 15 such cores in 23 hours; typical runs took ~18 hours), with thermal curing at ~160 °C; the foundry added a second ExOne printer in 2023 and now produces parts from 5 kg to 1,100 kg, shortening prototyping time and expanding series-production capability.

Georg Fischer

Eric Nierenberg

Technologist