AFS Corporate Member Tooling and Equipment International (Livonia, Michigan) has signed a three-year volume contract with fellow Corporate Member voxeljet America Inc. (Canton, Michigan) for 3-D printed sand molds and cores.

TEI has committed to purchase more than 500,000 liters of 3-D printed sand from voxeljet over an expected three-year period. In connection with the contract, voxeljet will install additional printing capacity in TEI’s Livonia facility as well as using its existing machines in its Canton, Michigan facility.

TEI has a comprehensive low-pressure aluminum casting facility together with heat treatment and a state-of-the-art machine shop with over 50 CNC machines. TEI supplies machined-prototype and low-volume components in aluminum, iron and steel to automotive, aerospace and defense customers. With the help of voxeljet’s high productivity 3-D printing systems, geared towards industrial production, TEI will offer all phases of manufacturing from one source: design, 3-D sand printing, casting, heat treatment, machining, and inspection.

“This is an outstanding opportunity for both companies to further capitalize on the benefits of large scale 3-D sand printing for engineered aluminum castings,” said Oliver Johnson, president, TEI. “With voxeljet working alongside us to supply molds and cores, we will be able to compress lead times even further for our customers while also setting new records in terms of the size and weight of parts we can cast.”

“The 3-D printing industry is at an inflection point, and this marks another milestone in our mission to push 3-D printing into industrial production,” said David Tait, managing director, voxeljet America. “We are very proud to support TEI’s growth strategy with our unique 3-D printing technology.”