Sharrow Engineering announced it is scaling production of its patented Sharrow Propeller through a collaboration with Ford Motor Company, leveraging advanced 3D sand-casting techniques enabled by the Michigan Central.
The collaboration significantly reduces production timelines from as long as 130 days using traditional casting methods to approximately two weeks, enabling Sharrow to accelerate output ahead of peak seasonal demand.
Over the past nine months, Sharrow and Ford’s Advanced Industrial Technology and Platforms team worked to adapt the company’s precision-engineered propeller designs to a 3D-printed sand-casting process. The effort focused on refining and validating manufacturing methods to support high-volume production while maintaining the precision required for the product’s performance.
Michigan Central played a key role in facilitating the collaboration by connecting Sharrow with Ford’s manufacturing expertise and providing access to prototyping resources and talent within Detroit’s mobility innovation ecosystem. The partnership also involved regional foundries contributing metallurgical and production expertise to bring the new casting approach online.
Since its launch in 2020, the Sharrow Propeller has seen strong demand from recreational, commercial, and government customers due to its improved efficiency, reduced noise, and enhanced performance. The company is now focused on scaling production to meet growing global demand and expanding applications of its propulsion technology beyond marine use cases into areas such as drones, advanced mobility, and energy systems.
The announcement builds on Sharrow’s continued investment in U.S.-based manufacturing, including recent facility expansion in Michigan, and highlights the role of advanced manufacturing partnerships in accelerating the commercialization of breakthrough technologies.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. 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.”
Carolina Pluszczynski, Acting CEO, Michigan Central
“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. 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.”
Dan Michalski, Additive Manufacturing Operations Supervisor, Ford Motor Company
“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. 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.”
Greg Sharrow, Founder And CEO, Sharrow Engineering
