3DCERAM Sinto is partnering with Avignon Ceramic, a supplier of investment casting for some of the largest aviation engine manufacturers, as well as the world’s leading precision foundries, to create U3DC. The joint venture aims to provide the precision foundry industry with proven solutions in both the production of 3D printed ceramic cores and to offer a complete printing solution (machine, materials and process).

Launching U3DC is the answer to expectations from precision foundries, founders, and core manufacturers looking for a partner that can offer a turnkey solution to ceramic core 3D printing. This new service proposed by U3DC ranges from the definition of raw materials, depending on the specific alloy required and the casting mode, to the realization of test cores to validate the process at the foundry.

3DCeram-Sinto is a turnkey provider of solutions for additive manufacturing of ceramics, with over 15 years of experience in 3D printing and machine sales using stereolithography. Combining this experience with Avignon Ceramics’ 30 years of invest casting know-how will support customers wishing to integrate 3D into the various stages of the process, as well as carry out tests to integrate this new printing technology.

• Foundry cores are an essential part of the production of turbine blades for aviation, aero-derivative and land-based gas turbines. The internal cooling structure of the turbine blade facilitates a reduction in the substrate temperature, creating opportunities to lower fuel consumption, improve turbine efficiency and decrease engine emissions. The need for complex core design has increased dramatically with customers’ demands for smaller, more efficient and cost-effective engines running at higher temperatures, stretching existing alloy technology to its limit.

  These new complex core designs can prove to be difficult to produce using traditional methods due to the web of internal passageways and chambers present to promote the increased surface area and airflow to cool the blade.