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Zhengheng Power uses 3D printing sand mold technology to help the high-performance cylinder block land

In high-end engine manufacturing, the core of lightweight and performance improvement is to compress the development cycle. The integration of 3D printing sand molds and precision manufacturing is solving this pain point. The boxer 2-cylinder developed by a well-known OEM adopts the “3D printing sand mold→ low-pressure casting →CNC machining” scheme, which not only maintains performance but also compresses the development cycle to the weekly level.

This horizontally opposed cylinder block is made of ZL101A aluminum alloy, using the left and right single cylinder horizontally opposed structure, and the project takes 3D printing sand mold as the core process, eliminating the traditional blank mold to achieve efficient and low-cost dynamic development. Its manufacturing requires extremely high precision and process, and Zhengheng Power solves the core problems in a targeted manner. Technically, the position of the cylinder liner needs to reach φ0.4, the single cylinder hole and the side positioning need to be coordinated but cannot be integrated with the sand mold, the sand mold combination accuracy is ≤ 1mm, and the clamping and cylinder liner placement need to have zero error.

The whole process is precisely controlled, and the cylinder adopts low-pressure casting process. The difficulty lies in: (1) There is no connection between the cylinder hole and the water jacket wall of the cylinder block, resulting in slow filling of the cylinder hole and fast external filling speed, which can easily lead to air holes caused by aluminum water coil at the cylinder hole. (2) The problem of shrinkage hole in the oil channel, the opening of the sprue on the original structure of the cylinder block cannot meet the requirements of shrinkage, so the runner is opened on the processing surface of the cylinder block, and the later machining will be processed and removed at the feeding point to solve the problem of shrinkage of the oil channel. (3) In the production process, the cylinder liner will interfere with the sand core when the cylinder liner is lowered, so the interference problem is solved by separating the interference sand core separately and then lowering the interference sand core after the cylinder liner is lowered.

With exclusive 3D printing center technology and nearly 30 years of cylinder block manufacturing experience, Zhengheng Power takes 3D printing sand mold as the core to implement customers’ rapid development, controllable cost and dynamic change needs.
Eliminate traditional molds, CAD models are directly driven to 3D printing, sand molds are completed in 8-15 hours, and the delivery of drawings to test blanks is realized within 72 hours, and the cycle is reduced from “monthly” to “weekly/daily”, reducing the project threshold and trial and error risk. 3D printing achieves complex cavity molding with a layer thickness accuracy of 0.1mm, without mold release restrictions, supports rapid design changes, and avoids mold modification costs and cycle losses.

The above solutions combine the advantages of 3D printing to overcome manufacturing bottlenecks. Zhengheng precision-controlled all links to ensure the accuracy and stability of engine assembly. This boxer 2-cylinder block is one of the many cases of Zhengheng integrating 3D printing and core technology, Zhengheng Power has been deeply involved in the power field for nearly 30 years, and will continue to upgrade the technical production line in the future to provide efficient and environmentally friendly power component solutions for many fields.