Case Study: Speed 3D Mold achieves two-week, tooling-free replacement of a legacy diesel cylinder head with ExOne binder jetting

Obsolete Replacement Part Delivered in Two Weeks with Digital Casting

Speed 3D Mold, a sand moulds & cores manufacturer in Samutsakorn, Thailand, was asked to replace a cracked legacy diesel engine cylinder head for Hi‑Tech Marine that was out of OEM production. Traditional replacement tooling would have taken over 10 months, so Speed 3D Mold turned to ExOne binder jetting technology (S‑Max® sand 3D printer) to provide a fast, tooling‑free solution.

Using ExOne’s binder jetting on the S‑Max®, Speed 3D Mold reverse‑engineered the part, 3D‑printed a 19‑piece sand mold and core package in about 10 hours, and cast a ~100 kg gray‑iron cylinder head that was delivered in two weeks. The ExOne‑enabled digital casting workflow eliminated costly tooling, cut lead time from months to weeks, allowed rapid design iterations and precision tolerances, and delivered roughly 40% cost savings versus conventional production.

Speed 3D Mold

Nattinee Valun-Araya

Head of Engineering