A crane manufacturer had an urgent need for a lift yoke that goes on the mast end of a truck-mounted crane. Unfortunately, the tooling was lost in a fire. Because the part was low volume, the OEM hoped to avoid the $8,500 cost and time to build new tooling. The sale of a $200,000+ truck was waiting on this part. Midwest Metal Products (Winona, Minnesota) took a hybrid casting approach combining 3D printing with conventional sand casting to provide the part quickly.

See the full column in the May/June 2021 digital edition here.