Sharrow Engineering is leveraging advanced 3D sand-casting techniques as it scales production of its patented Sharrow Propeller through a collaboration with Ford Motor Company’s Advanced Industrial Technology & Platforms (ATP) team.
The 3D printing-enabled workflow is said to result in a significant reduction in production timelines. Previously, with traditional investment casting, the lead time was as much as 130 days, but with 3D sand-casting, Ford and Sharrow have been able to bring that down to around two weeks.
Michigan Central – Detroit’s hub for mobility innovation – facilitated the collaboration between Sharrow and Ford, connecting Sharrow’s proprietary propeller design with Ford’s expertise in manufacturing innovation and industrial scale.
Over the past nine months, the teams worked together to adapt Sharrow’s precision-engineered designs to a 3D printed sand-casting process. The effort saw Ford work closely with regional foundries to bring the new casting approach online, refining and validating the process to enable high-volume production and help Sharrow meet growing consumer demand for the Sharrow Propeller.
“Michigan Central was built to bring together the people, infrastructure, and expertise needed to help companies move from breakthrough ideas to real-world scale. Sharrow is exactly the kind of company we’re here to support — an innovator with proven technology and growing demand,” said Carolina Pluszczynski, Acting CEO of Michigan Central. “It is incredible to see how Sharrow has scaled since joining our ecosystem. They have leveraged the prototyping labs here, found talent to grow their team, and expanded their footprint. And now, by connecting them with the Ford advanced manufacturing team, Sharrow has drastically accelerated its production processes, turning innovation into tangible impact.”
“Ford has been at the leading edge of 3D sand-casting for more than 20 years, and it’s rewarding to use that expertise to help another Michigan company scale so quickly,” added Dan Michalski, Additive Manufacturing Operations Supervisor, Ford. “This is about more than just propellers – it’s about making industrial innovation available to customers like Sharrow so they can compete on a global stage."
The Sharrow Propeller was launched in 2020 and has seen 'rapidly growing demand' from recreational boaters, commercial operators, and government agencies seeking improvements in efficiency, noise reduction, and performance. Sharrow Engineering says that the 'breakthrough design' has also attracted interest across mobility, defence and energy systems, with scaling production to meet this global interest becoming the company's primary focus.
“Since we introduced the Sharrow Propeller, the market response has been extraordinary, but scaling production has been our biggest challenge, particularly getting high-quality castings fast enough to meet demand,” said Greg Sharrow, Founder and CEO of Sharrow Engineering and Sharrow Marine. “That’s one of the reasons we came to Detroit — to tap into a level of manufacturing capability and ecosystem we couldn’t find anywhere else, including the network at Michigan Central. This collaboration with Ford Motor Company has solved that problem for us in a big way. What used to take an entire boating season to produce can now be made in just a few weeks. That’s game-changing. It’s a powerful example of what can happen when companies like Ford help bring breakthrough technologies to industrial scale.”
