Detroit's Newest Export: How Ford is Helping Sharrow Propel the Boating Industry Forward
For decades, the basic design of the boat propeller hadn't changed much. Then came Sharrow Engineering. Their looped, "toroidal" propeller design didn't just look different; it promised to be quieter, more fuel-efficient, and significantly smoother than anything on the market. But as any hardware startup knows, having a revolutionary design is only half the battle. The real challenge is making enough of them to satisfy a hungry market.
Until recently, Sharrow faced a classic manufacturing bottleneck. Using traditional investment casting -- a labor-intensive process that hasn't changed much in centuries -- it could take up to 130 days to produce a single propeller. For a boater looking to upgrade, a four-month wait is an eternity.
Now, thanks to an unlikely partnership with Ford Motor Company and Detroit's Michigan Central innovation hub, Sharrow has slashed that timeline from months to just two weeks.
The Automotive Giant Meets the Marine Startup
The collaboration was born out of Michigan Central -- the mobility district where the goal of the ecosystem is to connect scrappy startups with the industrial "Goliaths" that have already solved the problems of scale.
In this case, Ford's Advanced Industrial Technology & Platforms (ATP) team stepped in. While Ford is known for F-150s and Mustangs, they are also world leaders in 3D sand-casting -- a process they've refined over 20 years. By 3D-printing the sand molds used to pour the metal, the teams eliminated the need for expensive, time-consuming hard tooling.
Over the last nine months, Ford engineers worked alongside Sharrow to adapt the propeller's complex geometry to this high-tech casting method. By leveraging regional foundries and Ford's metallurgical expertise, they didn't just speed up the process; they created a repeatable, high-volume production line right in Detroit's backyard.
More Than Just Better Boating
For Greg Sharrow, the company's founder, the move to Detroit was a strategic bet on American manufacturing. "We came to Detroit to tap into a level of manufacturing capability we couldn't find anywhere else," Sharrow noted. The bet is paying off. The company recently expanded into a 60,000-square-foot facility in Harper Woods, Michigan, marking its fourth expansion in five years.
But the implications of this partnership go beyond weekend boaters saving a few gallons of gas. The quiet, efficient propulsion technology Sharrow pioneered has caught the eye of the defense and renewable energy sectors. The same physics that make a boat move more efficiently can be applied to industrial fans, pumps, drones, and even wind turbines.
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