Sharrow Engineering announced it is scaling production of its patented Sharrow Propeller through a collaboration with Ford Motor Company?s Advanced Industrial Technology & Platforms team, using advanced 3D sand-casting techniques connections made through the Michigan Central innovation ecosystem. The result is a significant reduction in production timelines, shortening what used to take as much as 130 days with traditional investment casting to approximately two weeks, while maintaining the precision required for Sharrow?s designs. 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 focused on refining and validating the casting process to enable high-volume production and help Sharrow meet growing consumer demand for the Sharrow Propeller. As part of the effort, Ford helped develop and refine the mold manufacturing process while working closely with experienced regional foundries to bring the new casting approach online. By combining Ford?s expertise in advanced manufacturing processes with the deep metallurgical and pouring experience of local foundry partners, the collaboration has accelerated the path toward scalable production of the Sharrow Propeller.
Since its launch in 2020, the Sharrow Propeller has seen rapidly growing demand from recreational boaters, commercial operators, and government agencies seeking improvements in efficiency, noise reduction, and performance. The breakthrough design has also attracted interest beyond marine propulsion, with potential applications across mobility, defense, and energy systems. As demand for the technology has expanded, scaling production to meet global interest has become the company?s primary focus. This advancement builds on Sharrow?s continued investment in U.S.-based manufacturing, including its fourth expansion in five years to its new 60,000-square-foot facility in Harper Woods, Michigan, and supports ongoing hiring and growth in the Detroit region.
The collaboration also marks a broader step forward for Sharrow as the company expands beyond marine propulsion into new categories of mobility and energy efficiency. The same core technology behind the Sharrow Propeller has applications across drones, advanced air mobility, industrial fans, pumps, and renewable energy systems. With rapid prototyping at Michigan Central and Newlab Detroit, and Ford?s manufacturing expertise helping scale production, Sharrow now has a clear pathway to move new propulsion technologies from concept to industrial production faster than ever before.
