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Keyport Selected as Test Bed for AMCAST

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060616-11
Release Date: 6/16/2006 4:50:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Mary Popejoy, Northwest Region Fleet Public Affairs Center

SILVERDALE, Wash. (NNS) -- Naval Undersea Warfare Center Keyport in Silverdale, Wash., made history Jan. 23 by becoming the first Department of Defense (DoD) site to establish the Agile Manufacturing Center for Casting Technologies (AMCAST).

AMCAST's rapid casting technology (RCT) is a million-dollar piece of equipment, essentially a life-size printer that creates sand casting molds of valve components, pump components, and cable housings, among other things. This machine makes a sand casting mold directly from a computer-aided design (CAD) file.

"After the CAD file of the sand mold is created, it is sent to the RCT computer where the operator places all of the molds to be created in the current batch into a virtual build area," said Kyle Morris, mechanical engineer for the Industrial Department at Keyport. "The RCT system draws sand into a mixer where it is combined with an activator, then pumped into the machine."

The process begins with a 0.011-inch thick layer of sand spread in the build area of the job box and the printhead, operating like that of an ink-jet printer, traversing the build area, depositing glue in the exact spots needed to form the first layer of mold. The build platform then drops down 0.011 inch and another layer of sand is spread over the surface of the platform and the process repeats itself until the batches of molds are complete.

"Once the project is done, the job box shuttles out of the machine to an unloading station where the unbound sand is vacuumed out, uncovering the molds," said Morris. When sufficient sand is removed, the mold is lifted from the job box where it is assembled and placed on foam on special pallets to prevent damage as the mold is shipped to the Naval Foundry and Propeller Center (NFPC), Philadelphia."

When the sand casting mold arrives at NFPC, they are responsible for pouring the molten metal - whether aluminum, stainless steel, brass, bronze, cast iron or cast steel - into the molds.

"In the foundry, they have a vent system for the gasses to get out, and a system to pour the molten metal in as well," said Morris. "The molten metal is poured into a hole, comes out into a cavity and flows up to fill the cavity where the part is, and the excess comes out the vent," he said.

Once the part cools down and solidifies, the sand mold is broken apart to get the part. NFPC then sends the part back to Keyport where they deliver it to the organization that requested the part.

According to Morris, before Keyport received AMCAST, it would take months to create a part, but now it takes weeks, which makes the process exceptionally efficient for low-quantity sand castings.

"In the past, in order to make a casting you had to go to a vendor and have them create a pattern of the part they wanted, but the RTC process allows the entire sand casting mold with all of the necessary passages for the molten metal, eliminating the need to create any casting patterns, which allows the products to be dispensed in a timely manner," he said.

Being a part of such a ground breaking process gives Morris and Patrick Bergan, engineering branch head, a lot of job satisfaction.

"If we can provide ships, submarines and aircraft with the part they need in reasonable amount of time, then we are doing our part to keep the fleet mission-ready, and that in itself is a great way to make a living," said Bergan.

For more news from around the fleet, visit www.navy.mil.