Case Study: Dundee Castings achieves higher-quality, faster automotive seating mold production with ExOne binder jet 3D printing

Binder Jet 3D Printing Enables Higher Quality Production of Automotive Seating Mold Tooling

Dundee Castings, a family‑run aluminum foundry in Dundee, Michigan and a Tier‑2 supplier of automotive seating molds, faced a shrinking pool of skilled patternmakers and legacy CNC/plaster workflows that limited quality, design complexity, and storage. To modernize production and protect future business, Dundee Castings invested in ExOne’s binder jet 3D printing technology, deploying S‑Max Pro sand 3D printers that use silica sand with a furan binder.

Using ExOne S‑Max Pro systems (first installed in 2021, a second added in 2022), Dundee shifted all seat foam mold production to digital binder jetting—enabling faster turnarounds (“print tonight, cast tomorrow”), higher precision, and more intricate geometries that were previously impractical. The ExOne solution improved quality and consistency, eliminated physical pattern storage, reduced dependence on scarce patternmakers, expanded capacity to accept external jobs, and helped drive new, larger orders for millions of automotive seats and interior components.

Dundee Castings

Austin Crawley

Program Manager