The Sharrow™ Propeller that used to take an entire boating season to manufacture can now be made in just a few weeks.

And we couldn’t do it without Ford — and some sand.

What we could accomplish in 130 days using traditional wax and ceramic casting now takes approximately two weeks with advanced 3D sand-casting techniques mastered by Ford Motor Company’s Advanced Industrial Technology & Platforms (ATP) team.

How did our boat propeller experts team up with the sand-casting pros at Ford? It’s all thanks to Michigan Central, Detroit’s hub for mobility innovation, which brings together startups, industry leaders, and other partners to help advance next-generation technologies.

Michigan Central facilitated the collaboration between Sharrow and Ford, connecting our 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 focused on refining and validating the casting process to enable high-volume production and help us meet growing consumer demand for the Sharrow Propeller.

“Sharrow is exactly the kind of company we’re here to support — an innovator with proven technology and growing demand. ”

Carolina Pluszczynski, acting CEO, Michigan Central

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 we introduced the Sharrow Propeller in 2020, the market response has been extraordinary. We are seeing rapidly growing demand from recreational boaters, commercial operators, and government agencies seeking improvements in efficiency, noise reduction, and performance.

“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.”

Dan Michalski, additive manufacturing operations supervisor, Ford

The breakthrough design has also attracted interest beyond marine propulsion, with potential applications across mobility, defense, and energy systems.

But scaling production has been our biggest challenge, particularly getting high-quality castings fast enough to meet demand. I could not make them fast enough.

Less than seven minutes into my first conversation with Ford, they told me they had the solution. This sand-casting collaboration has solved our scale problem in a big way.

The speed is game-changing. It’s a powerful example of what can happen when companies like Ford help bring breakthrough technologies to industrial scale.

This advancement builds on Sharrow’s continued investment in U.S.-based manufacturing, including our fourth expansion in five years to our 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 Motor Company’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.

Greg Sharrow is founder and CEO of Sharrow Engineering and Sharrow Marine