Case Study: Döktas achieves faster time-to-market and production agility with ExOne S-Max Pro

Be Ahead of the Competition in Iron Casting with Sand 3D Printing

Döktas, Turkey’s largest iron foundry, faced rising customer demand for faster prototyping and greater production agility to win complex casting work for automotive, heavy commercial vehicle and industrial sectors. To meet shorter time-to-market and handle geometrically complex parts, Döktas invested in the ExOne S-Max Pro sand binder-jet 3D printer (the first foundry globally to adopt the S-Max Pro), aiming to speed iterations, reduce tooling lead times and expand capability for large, heavy castings.

Using the ExOne S-Max Pro and ExOne’s binder jetting workflow, Döktas moved from months-long tooling cycles to rapid digital casting: prototype iterations as fast as 13 days, first productions in 1–2 weeks, and delivery of 10–15 V8 engine blocks (≈1,420 kg each) within 4–6 weeks versus 6–7 months conventionally. ExOne’s solution enabled complex core consolidation (replacing multiple cores with single printed cores), reduced scrap and labor, improved surface quality and tolerances (≈±0.3 mm), and supports Döktas’ plan to print roughly 6,000 cores annually—demonstrating measurable time, cost and quality gains with ExOne.

Döktas

Bülent Şirin

Engineering R&D Director