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[charlie T colton]

GE BAKER HUGHES: PRINTING 1800 PARTS FOR DRILLING RIGS

At 3dprintmagazine.eu - GE BAKER HUGHES: 1800 ONDERDELEN PRINTEN VOOR BOOREILANDEN - 11 jun 2018

Baker Hughes, part of GE and supplier to the oil and gas industry, 3D prints annually as about 1800 parts that are used on oil rigs. The company wants to set up a network of production centers around the world, so that 3D metal printing can take place as close as possible to the drilling platform.

Why AM is important for the oil industry

OIL SUPPLIER SUPPLIER SEES SHORTER LEADTIME AS ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES
The experiences that Christoph Wangenheim, manager AM at GE Baker Hughes presented on Rapid.Tech, illustrate how many more sectors than just the aviation and medical industry are implementing additive manufacturing. GE Baker Hughes, created last year by the merger of GE Oil & Gas and the originally German Baker Hughes, is the first full stream supplier to the oil and gas industry. In 2012, the first drill head was printed 3D. The AM technology is now also being used for customers who are working on thermo-energy.

Christoph Wangenheim was clear about the reasons why the oil and gas industry needs 3D metal printing. It is drilled deep into the earth's crust, under high pressure (up to 500 bar) and at high temperatures (up to 200 degrees C). "Normal tools then do not have a long tool life." The extension of time is also the first reason. Making wear-resistant drill bits that are more resistant to corrosion is another reason. "Wear and tear due to corrosion costs the industry 1.2 billion dollars a year." Leadtime is the third argument. That is why GE Baker Hughes is working on AM production centers worldwideto be set up, so that time is also saved on the logistic handling of an order. "A day's standstill on the platform costs 1 million dollars. You want to restore production as quickly as possible. We think that AM can significantly reduce the supply chain. "

Zero defect AM does not exist

But: the AM expert from the oil and hospitality industry put the finger on the sore spot at the conference: the technology must be more consistent in quality. Wishful thinking? According to Sandra Zühlke, researcher at the Fraunhofer IAPT (the former Laser Zentrum Nord), "The slm process is not a 100 percent perfect process, we can not achieve zero defect production." That's why the researchers want to tackle it differently. The Future AM project develops a model that predicts the lifespan of a 3D printed product based on multiple parameters.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL PREDICTS LIFETIME AM PART

The input used for the model is the requirements that the application sets, the geometry and the most important process parameters that are measured during the process. The typical errors that arise are also taken into account. When the part is ready, the model then indicates that it achieves the required service life despite any errors. Currently the first tests are running in Hanover. Integrating such a system into the 3D metal printers would be ideal, but she thinks that this is still a step too far for the time being. "Especially in the short term our solution is more efficient."